A Level Business

Why study Business?

Businesses are all around us, with the majority of people working for or running their own business at some point in their lives. The course is designed to provide an insight into the world of business and will enable students to develop a holistic appreciation for business concepts and strategy.

What Will I Study?

Year 12 will cover an introduction to key business areas: marketing, operations, finance, and human resource management. This includes a special focus on decision making – particularly how decisions made in one area can affect the rest of the business.

Year 12 content includes:

- What is business?

- Managers, leadership and decision making

- Decision making to improve marketing performance

- Decision making to improve operational performance

- Decision making to improve financial performance

- Decision making to improve human resource performance

Year 13 will focus on an investigation of the strategic decisions that all businesses have to make.

Year 13 content includes:

- Analysing the strategic position of a business

- Choosing strategic direction

- Strategic methods: how to pursue strategies

- Managing strategic change

Business Extras

There are numerous documentaries and reading materials available that allow students to explore business in a greater depth. More information on these will be provided as part of the course induction.

Assessment

The course is assessed at the end of Year 13 by three two-hour written exams, each contributing to 33.3% of the overall grade.

Paper 1: Business 1

Consisting of multiple-choice questions, short answer questions and two essay questions (25 marks each).

Paper 2: Business 2

Three data response compulsory questions worth approximately 33 marks each and made up of three or four part questions.

Paper 3: Business 3

One compulsory case study followed by approximately six questions.

Minimum Entry Requirements:

5 x 5s

4 in English and Maths

Subject Specific Entry Requirements:

5 in GCSE Maths

4 in GCSE Business or L2 Pass in BTEC Business, if studied previously.

* Please note that Level 2 vocational courses are the equivalent of 1 GCSE and only 1 will be counted towards the A-Level pathway entry requirements

What can Business lead to?

Many A-Level Business students go on to study at university, including reading business related subjects.

If you decide not to go to university you could go on to an advanced apprenticeship programme or gain employment. Careers in finance, marketing, human resources, management and other ‘business related’ areas are all possibilities for students who have studied A Level Business Studies.