Business Studies (A Level)  

•  Assessment
• Year 1 and 2
  100% exam
• Exam board
  Edexcel

*This course cannot be studied as part of a blended programme.

What Will You Learn?

Business Studies will teach you the theory behind successful businesses. This course will interest budding entrepreneurs, as you will develop a knowledge of how businesses are organised, structured and operated. You will examine real business situations, making use of a range of information sources and personal research.

Modules

Year 1

• Theme 1 – Marketing and People: You will investigate how a business conducts market research to find out what customers want. You will analyse various ways that a business advertises and promotes itself to encourage people to buy its products and services. You will discover ways that a business recruits staff to ensure success and learn all the ways that a business motivates its staff to ensure maximum productivity.
• Theme 2 – Managing Business Activities: You will learn how to construct and interpret financial documents, such as cash flow forecasts and budgets. You will investigate different sources of finance to help a business meet its objectives. You will study production methods, stock control, quality and capacity utilisation. You will also investigate external factors that can affect a business and how it operates, such as interest rates and exchange rates.

Year 2

• Theme 3 – Business Decisions and Strategy: You will develop an understanding of techniques used by a business to help them to make decisions to aid them in meeting their objectives. You will investigate the benefits and problems of business growth, along with how a business can manage change.
• Theme 4 – Global Business: This theme looks at many of the topics already studied, but on a global scale. This includes how a business may need to adapt its marketing strategy when operating in other countries and how a business can achieve growth by expanding internationally. You will explore a number of multinational corporations, such as McDonalds, Starbucks and Google.

Special Features

• Educational visits have included Alton Towers, Jaguar Land Rover, Coca-Cola, Salford University, Manchester Metropolitan University and residential visits to London.
• Talks from guest speakers, including The Bank of England and Price Waterhouse Cooper.
• Bring your own product idea to life and enter local and national competitions by taking part in Young Enterprise.

Where Will This Lead?

Business Studies students go on to study a range of degree courses at university, including Accounting, International Business, Marketing, Banking and Law. Students have progressed onto degree apprenticeships with AJ Bell, PwC and Deloitte.