Academic Subjects Business Studies (GCSE)
Business Studies (GCSE)
Business Studies (GCSE)
Business Studies is an exciting and fast moving subject that looks at the way in which businesses operate to satisfy customers and make profits for investors. You will be shown how business decisions are made and have the opportunity to practise your own business decision making in the context of a variety of simulated business situations. How would you set the price for a new games console? How would you raise the capital finance to start your own business? How can a new product be protected? Which businesses provide good investment opportunities? Your business decision making skills will gradually be improved and you will begin to understand business articles in newspapers, assess business opportunities for yourself and discover a whole new area of study and possible careers for the future.
Why study Business Studies?
Business is all around us. You are part of it – a customer, possibly an investor through your savings, enjoying some of the wealth created by businesses in the economy or interested in your parents’ links with businesses. Studying Business Studies will allow you to play your part in the economy more effectively, become more informed as a customer, act more wisely as an investor and be sharper as a possible entrepreneur or business executive. Business Studies will refine your decision making and allow you to take more control when you deal with businesses or think about starting a business. It is a very popular subject and indeed the popular for university entry.
Business Studies includes:
- Business Organisation – forming a company, multinational businesses, franchising
- Marketing – finding out what people want and how to satisfy them in terms of product design, price, promotion and where to sell the product
- Finance – sources of finance, profit and loss accounts, balance sheets, how to judge the financial health of a business and make investment decisions
- Production – where and how to produce goods and services, computerisation, stock control
- People – how to motivate, organise, select, train and reward workers
- Business Environment – the nature of markets, e-business, business law, the economy
What do the lessons include?
Very often a business event reported in the news can be used to illustrate the topic being taught, for example company takeovers or the launch of a new product, and that enables the lessons to be kept lively and relevant to what is happening in the world now. Your interest in the understanding of the business news will improve. Our excellent textbook, specially written for the course, contains many up-to-date case studies of real businesses such as Coca Cola, Sony, Cadbury’s, Dixons and Abbey National. You will be able to study and discuss major business decisions that are taking place in real companies and gain an understanding of the responsibilities involved in driving a large company. As important business news is announced, perhaps a change in interest rates or a dramatic change in the stock market prices, we pause from the current topic to consider the business impact of the latest news. Your thoughts on what a particular business ought to do to tackle its current problems are encouraged and discussed.
Internet website investigations
Internet websites provide an increasingly important source of information for lessons and you can see some of the areas covered in business studies by accessing www.bbc.co.uk/business or www.bbc.co.uk/school/gcsebitesize/business or www.ft.com. The FT website is particularly good for gaining share price information used in our Business Share Games which pupils find particularly interesting.How will I be assessed?
At the end of the course there is a two hour written examination (75%) based on a business case study issued about six weeks before. The case study contains information about a company and in recent years Tesco, McDonald’s and British Airways have been used. Pupils and staff work through the case study together before the examination and during the examination pupils answer questions requiring them to apply their knowledge of the course to the particular problems of the company selected.
Assessed coursework (25%) involves each pupil producing a business plan to start a business. Pupils are shown how to progress through each stage, for example gathering the market research, deciding on sources of finance etc. The exercise is interesting and fun.
Some of the topics
Company formation * partnerships * multinationals * franchising * stakeholders * business finance * profit and loss accounts * balance sheets * the stock market * break-even * cashflow * budgeting * working capital * ratio analysis * market research * market segmentation * marketing mix * pricing * product design * promotion * advertising * location * branding * product life cycle * distribution * production * stock control * quality control * new technology * e-business * people * business organisation * motivation * recruitment * leadership * training * consumer protection * employment law * communication * business plans * EU * business ethics * business environment
For further information please contact Mr. N. E. Williams (Head of Business Studies) or any member of the Department.