Entry Requirements: Individual Merit
Subject Area:
Business & Industry
Assessment:
Exam
Location:
Woldgate and Longcroft
Entry Requirements: The Edexcel A Level Business qualification is a hybrid course offering choice and variety, with students having an opportunity to study Business and Economics in one qualification. It is particularly beneficial with the Economic element of the course providing students with contextual knowledge of the larger environment in which businesses operate, whilst the Business component of the course contributes to a student’s comprehension and understanding of the world of commerce.
Our Business students have a unique opportunity, as they are automatically enrolled as members of the Peter Jones Enterprise Academy. This enables them to access funding to set up their own business, to enter Flash Challenge competitions against other schools in the PJEA and at the end of the course they graduate as PJEA students at the annual Entfest Event held at the University of Buckingham. This course offers so many possibilities for them throughout the year, perhaps they want to set up a Pop-Up shop or enter the IFS Student Investors Challenge or maybe they would like to help manage and run the school’s new stationery shop too.
Additional Course Information
Students study four themes across the two-year course.
Theme 1 – Marketing and People:
Theme 1 covers a range of introductory topics, but also looks at the role of marketing, human resources as well as covering demand, supply and elasticity.
Theme 2 – Managing Business Activities:
Theme 2 starts to consider the finance involved in businesses, we look at some of the external influences faced by businesses including legislation and the external economic environment.
Theme 3 – Business Strategy and Decisions:
Theme 3 looks at the frameworks that help shape the growth of businesses, including the Boston and Ansoff Matrix and the concepts of organic and inorganic growth. We delve deeper into the understanding of decision making using other management tools such as critical path analysis, decision trees and investment appraisals.
Theme 4 – Global Business:
The final theme focuses on many of the other issues we have already covered but from a global perspective. We are mainly looking at the role of Multinational Businesses, Trading Blocs and of course the factors that have helped to contribute to Globalisation.
Students are assessed via three 2-hour examinations. The questions are a mixture of short answers and extended writing and are all based on real life case studies.
Paper 1 – Marketing, People and Global Business: Examines Theme 1 and 4
- 2-hour examination
Paper 2 – Business Activities, Decisions and Strategy: Examines Theme 2 and 3
- 2-hour examination
Paper 3 – Investigating Business in a Competitive Environment: Examines all the Themes
- 2-hour examination
