Business, Enterprise and Economics

Business is for pupils who want to learn more about and are interested in the core business concepts and how businesses work, from start-ups to multinational companies.

The Business and Enterprise courses aim to develop pupils’ awareness of the importance of enterprise and commerce in developing and sustaining a healthy economy. A range of practical and transferable employability skills are embedded in all courses alongside the academic qualifications themselves. Courses explore everything business-related from starting and building up a business and developing marketing plans to pitching business ideas and understanding business from an operational and global perspective. We offer business at KS4.

In Year 7 – 9 (KS3) our Computing & IT curriculum is designed and sequenced in a way that allows our learners to explore business concepts early on in their school life. Key concepts such as the Marketing Mix and project based work like Dragons Den is discretely sequenced into our curriculum. This allows our learners to have a good grasp of what GCSE or CNAT Business involves, and the different pathways it can lead to.

Business is a very popular option choice, Pupils have the option of taking one of two pathways, both of which are level 2 qualifications (GCSE or equivalent) but which offer different opportunities. Through guided choices, pupils take either Business GCSE or the Level 2 in Enterprise and Marketing.

GCSE Business is a two year course with final exams at the end of year 11. In Year 10, pupils will study Theme 1 –Investigating small business, which focuses on the techniques and skills required to develop business ideas, set up and run a business through theoretical concepts which are applied to real business scenarios. Content includes entrepreneurship, risk and reward. Business planning, financial forecasting and marketing concepts. Theme 1 represents 50% of the total qualification in the final assessment.

In year 11, pupils study theme 2 – Building a business. This section predominantly investigates how we grow a business, and includes themes such as globalisation and business ethics, alongside functional theory exploring finance, marketing, operations and human resource management. Theme 2 represents the final 50% of the end point examinations.

For further information please have at look at the specification overview:

This is an exciting and varied course, with many practical elements that not only prepare our pupils for college and sixth form but also the world of work. For this course, all pupils study three mandatory units covering enterprise and marketing concepts where they have to design and market a viable business proposal.

The first unit underpins the wider learning in this qualification. Pupils develop essential knowledge and understanding of enterprise and marketing concepts, which are applied to the other units within the qualification. This unit is assessed by an external examination, which makes up 50% of the overall grade