Business

Curriculum Intent

Preparing students for their life after Mossley Hollins. We aim to help students become creative, safe and whose actions online are in line with their offline character.   

Curriculum Spine

Course Content

This course will provide you with the opportunity to explore real business issues and how businesses work. You will consider the practical application of business concepts and provide opportunities to explore theories and concepts in the most relevant way, through the context of events in the business and economic world. The knowledge and skills gained from this qualification will provide you with a firm foundation for further study.

Unit 1: Business in the real world. This part of the course is designed to introduce you to the subject. It considers the purpose of business activity, the role of business enterprise and entrepreneurship, and the dynamic nature of business. While studying this unit you will encounter the different legal forms a business can take, the goals they set themselves, how they decide where to locate and how they plan their activities.

Unit 2: Influences on business. All businesses are influenced by external factors and this unit considers some of the most important of these, including technology, the economic climate, globalisation and the law.

Unit 3: Business operations. Discover the different ways that businesses produce goods and services, how they manage their stock and their suppliers and how they attempt to produce high quality products and provide excellent customer service.

Unit 4: Human resources. Topics within this unit include how businesses structure their organisations, how they recruit and select new employees and how they motivate and train those employees once they start work.

Unit 5: Marketing. In this unit you will learn ways in which businesses identify, understand and target their customers with advertising and other methods of promoting their products. This unit will help you to understand how businesses discover the needs of their customers using market research.

Unit 6: Finance. This final unit will help you to understand how businesses raise the finance they need to establish and expand their businesses. It will also show how businesses manage their cash, calculate their profits (or losses) and use financial data and formulas to calculate and judge their performance.

How you will be assessed:

Paper 1 – Influences of operations and HRM on business activity. This examination is worth 90 marks and comprises 50% of your GCSE result. It lasts for one hour and 45 minutes and covers: – Business in the real world – Influences on business – Business operations – Human resources

Paper 2 – Influences of marketing and finance on business activity. This examination is worth 90 marks and comprises 50% of your GCSE result. It lasts for one hour and 45 minutes and covers: – Business in the real world – Influences on business – Marketing – Finance

Both examination papers have three sections:

Section A: multiple choice and short answer questions worth approximately 20 marks.

Section B: a case study with a mixture of 2, 4, 6, 9 and 12 mark questions.

Section C: a case study with a mixture of 2, 4, 6, 9 and 12 mark questions.

Additional Information/Skills:

If you are interested in learning about how businesses are set up and what it is that makes someone a successful entrepreneur. This course will help you to understand all this and more.

In order to achieve a higher grade in this subject, you will need to have knowledge and understanding of most aspects of the course content and be able to apply this knowledge and understanding – using terms, concepts, theories and processes – to address problems and issues. You should also be able to select, organise and interpret information and show the ability to organise and communicate it in an accurate and logical manner.

The GCSE in Business can prepare you for further and higher education courses in this subject, such as AS/A2 Levels and BTEC and NVQ courses.

The GCSE course will develop your skills in communicating, creative thinking, decision making and problem solving. You will also become skilled in dealing with data and understanding finance.

This course is a fantastic foundation for developing skills that you can take with you into a wide range of careers. It aims to give you an understanding of the workings of businesses and can particularly help you in the following career paths:

• Solicitor
• Teacher
• Administration roles
• Finance roles
• Human Resource Officer
• Manager

Past Business Papers