Business
Edexcel
Do you enjoy:
Communicating and explaining your ideas?
Thinking creatively and making decisions?
Working with numbers to solve business problems?
Learning about the world of business through real and relevant local and international brands?
If so, GCSE Business could be right for you.
What will I learn?
In GCSE Business you will learn about how the world of business works and its relevance to almost every aspect of modern society. Amongst other topics, you will learn about planning, finance, marketing and economics, and discover some of the methods and techniques used to analyse an organisation’s performance. You might have an interest in business, and want to start your own business one day. You may have an enquiring mind and be interested in learning about the world around you, how businesses are set up, and what it is that makes someone a great entrepreneur.
How will I learn?
You will experience various teaching methods including case studies, role-play and ICT alongside more traditional methods. You will be expected to immerse themselves in a business-like mindset and to pay attention to the world around them. You’ll start by exploring the world of small business through the lens of an entrepreneur. How and why do business ideas come about? What makes a successful business? You will understand how to make a business effective, manage money and see how the world around us impacts small businesses and all the people involved.
Then you’ll move on to investigating business growth. How does a business develop beyond the start-up phase? You’ll learn about key business concepts and issues and decisions you need to make when growing a business and working in a global business. You’ll learn about meeting customer needs, making marketing, operational, financial and human resourcing decisions and you’ll explore how the wider world impacts the business as it grows.
Pupils who opt for this new subject should be prepared to develop an interest in global current affairs through the internet, TV news, newspapers etc. A natural curiosity about global issues and the world of business is a definite advantage! There are some numerical aspects to the course which pupils should be comfortable with, such as basic data handling skills and the ability to perform basic calculations, and it is important to be able to follow a logical argument through and apply it to the world around us.
This course is a useful introduction to the subject for those interested in pursuing it at A Level, although it certainly isn’t essential for this purpose.
Assessment
Theme 1 and Theme 2 are assessed by a 1 hour and 45 minute exam on each theme. The papers consist of calculations, multiple-choice, short-answer and extended-writing questions. They are equally weighted.
The key units in the course are as follows:
Paper 1 – Theme 1 – Investigating Small Business
Paper 2 – Theme 2 – Building a Business
For further details about this course please contact
Mrs. J Davis, Head of Business & Economics.