Business Studies
Business and Enterprise is an important part of the UK economy and play’s a major role in the UK’s global status.
The Business Studies curriculum covers a range of key concepts, which examine the internal functions of a business and the external factors that may affect it with the aim of equipping students with the appropriate knowledge and skills needed to develop their wider knowledge of the world, employability skills and entrepreneurial ability and to apply knowledge and understanding to business decision-making, considering the interdependent nature of business activities. Through following the programme of study, students will develop as effective and independent learners, and as critical and reflective thinkers with enquiring minds.
Curriculum Aims
Our aims with Business Studies is to allows students to acquire valuable skills which can be transferred into the workplace such as research skills, the ability to communicate effectively as part of a team, independent working and how to analyse feedback and be self-critical in their work. Students will also develop problem-solving skills relevant to investigating, analysing and evaluating business opportunities using an enquiring and critical approach to make informed judgements.
Business Studies also gives students the opportunity to study a broad range of functions that a business carries out in order to succeed in an ever evolving world, analysing the possible effects of a particular course of action and evaluating its success.
To ensure its breadth, we also examine the external environment in which businesses operate, and we live.
Students benefit from taking part in relevant personal career planning and development including researching job roles and gaining a better understanding of the recruitment process. Students will also benefit from guest speakers from their local community and beyond.
The courses have been designed to been developed to provide learners with a realistic and thought-provoking introduction to the world of business and help learners to develop their knowledge of business theory, and allow them to use their creativity and entrepreneurism.
Curriculum Design
The Business Studies course is sequenced to ensure students have an holistic grounding in the subject prior to beginning any of their assessed modules and to ensure they develop the key skills necessary to understand a range of perspectives.
Students are first introduced to the key principles of a business. It is then broken down into learning about the specific functions which enable a business to achieve its aims. Students will gain an holistic understanding which is applied to real life contexts for internally and externally set assessments in Year 10 and 11. Over the course of the qualification students also build up skills of explanation, analysis and evaluation, which will enable them to critically analyse different business scenarios. In this way, the Business curriculum is designed to give students a practical understanding of the workings of a business and the wider context in which they operate, in order to prepare them for the world of work.
Please click the link to view our Business Studies Curriculum Year Overview
Future Pathways and Next Steps
Through the study of Business we aim to unlock each students' potential and inspire them to achieve excellence by being the best they can be. Demand for employment in this area is likely to continue to rise and expand, playing a key role in UK society. The role of entrepreneurs is to help create wealth for the nation and its citizens through the creation of enterprises that innovate and grow the economy. There are nearly 5 million such businesses in the UK, employing about 14.4 million people. In 2015, small and medium enterprises contributed to £24 billion in the UK economy. Study of the subject will support students with developing key transferable skills that can lead to a wide range of future opportunities, some of which include:
University Degrees: Accounting, Business Analytics , Business, Management and Administration Studies, Economics, Events Management
Apprenticeships: Business Administrator, Assistant Buyer
Careers: Customer Services, Human Resource Management, Insurance Loss Adjuster, International Business, Accountancy, Market Research Executive, Project Management, Trading Standards
Students can find out more about the subject and careers above by logging into their Unifrog account at https://www.unifrog.org/sign-in and using the Subject Library and Careers Library tools.