Business Studies

Applied AS/A-level

AQA

Business Studies is an extremely interesting course which looks at many aspects of the Business world: what makes a business successful, how organisations operate, how to manage finance, how to write a business plan, how to motivate the people who work in the business. If you have watched The Apprentice or Dragons’ Den you will know that Business skills are important in almost all careers.

On the course you will undertake individual and team tasks and see business at work through visits and talks by experts.

Why study Business at Paston?

The course is taught by specialist, enthusiastic teachers with extensive experience of helping students achieve excellent grades and who have strong links with local businesses.

You can combine Business Studies with a very wide range of AS/A-level subjects and students go on to university to study courses as diverse as accountancy, law, business and management, as well as joint courses combining Business with, for example, a language.

AS Business Studies

In AS Business Studies you will:
• Investigate how a real business runs: – reviewing its aims, its marketing and its organisation.
• Learn about the people in a business organisation – the types of jobs they do, how their performance is managed and what motivates them. You will take part in a mock recruitment exercise as a member of the selection team.
• Look at how a company plans, manages and uses its resources.
• Have opportunities to ‘apply’ the theory you learn to an actual business e.g. working as a manager at John Lewis.

Assessment

Two pieces of coursework (Investigating a Business and People in Business) and a one hour written examination.

Entry Requirements

A minimum of BBCCC at GCSE including English/English Language and Mathematics or a science.

A2 Business Studies

In A2 Business Studies you will build on what you learned in the AS year and study:
• Marketing: the marketing environment, how to assess your market and how social, ethical, legal, economic and technological issues influence the way you market.
• Business Planning: you will write a business plan for a new company, product or service. In 2011 for example, students produced plans for ‘Learn2surf’, ‘Betty Bakes Cakes’, ‘One Potato, Two Potato’ – a baked potato stall – and ‘Forest Edge Dog Agility Club’.
• Business organisations: their structure, leadership, management skills and staff motivation.

Assessment

Two 1 1⁄2 hour written examinations and one piece of coursework (the Business plan).