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Business Studies

Business Studies is an option at KS4. It follows the Edexcel GCSE specification.

All of us will work for a business and buy from businesses, so GCSE Business Studies helps students to understand how the real world works.

The overall themes that are studied are:

  • How business works.
  • How a business manages money.
  • How businesses are formed and managed.
  • How a business grows.

The GCSE course provides a range of business-related skills in the following ten business areas, related to Investigating small businesses in Year 10 and then looking at how businesses grow in Year 11:

Year 10 Content

Topic 1.1 Enterprise and entrepreneurship – The dynamic nature of business, risk and reward, The role of business and enterprise

Topic 1.2 Spotting a business opportunity - customer needs, market research, market segmentation, the competitive environment

Topic 1.3 Putting a business idea into practice - business aims and objectives, business revenues, costs and profits, bash and cash-flow, sources of business finance

Topic 1.4 Making the business effective - The options for start-up and small businesses, business location, bhe marketing mix, business plans

Topic 1.5 Understanding external influences on business - business stakeholders, technology and business, legislation and business, the economy and business, external influences

Year 11 Content

Topic 2.1 Growing the business - changes in business aims and objectives, business and globalisation, ethics, the environment and business

Topic 2.2 Making marketing decisions – product, price, promotion, place, using the marketing mix to make business decisions

Topic 2.3 Making operational decisions - business operations, working with suppliers, managing quality, the sales process

Topic 2.4 Making financial decisions - business calculations, understanding business performance

Topic 2.5 Making human resource decisions - organisational structures, effective recruitment, effective training and development, motivation