Business A Level

This course gives you an understanding of how business works, whether you wish to work in a large organisation or you have ambitions of starting your own business. In Business A Level, we investigate how organisations provide the goods and services that customers will use. This will involve studying firms and the environment in which they operate. We will look at how firms are affected by Government policy, overseas trade, other firms and the customers they compete for.

Your first year will be an introduction to key business areas such as marketing, operations, finance and human resource management. This includes a special focus on decision making – particularly how decisions made in one area can affect the rest of the business. Topics include:
What is business?; Managers, leadership and decision making; Decision making to improve marketing performance; Decision making to improve operational performance; Decision making to improve financial performance; Decision making to improve human resource performance.

Your second year will be an investigation of the strategic decisions that all businesses have to make. Topics include: Analysing the strategic position of a business; Choosing the strategic direction; Strategic methods: how to pursue strategies; Managing strategic change.

A Level assessment consists of three two-hour written exams taken at the end of the two-year course. Each exam will be worth a third of the A Level. All three papers will draw on material from the whole course, and will feature a range of question styles including multiple choice questions, short answer questions, essay questions, data response questions and case studies. Business Studies is a good preparation for careers in Accountancy, Management, Journalism, Marketing, Politics, Teaching/Lecturing, Retailing, Local Government, and any other career that requires a non-specific degree.