A-Level Business Studies

What makes a successful business? How do you find a really good business idea? How ethical and environmentally friendly is big business? How are business people meeting the challenges of globalisation and competition? Why are there relatively few women in top management? What difference is modern technology making to working patterns? Can Apple maintain its phenomenal success? With Business Studies you can find the answers to these and many other questions.

Business Studies helps you to gain an understanding of business activity from small enterprises to multi-national organisations. Our course covers a wide range of topics, such as human resource management, finance, production and marketing and integrates them in the context of the organisation’s external environment. We will ensure your understanding of business is built on real world examples by the use of practical case studies. There is a strong element of numerical work to develop your understanding of the quantitative methods which businesses use to research and measure future objectives and actual performance.

If you are interested in the world of business and you would like to understand, examine and practice the skills and attributes of successful entrepreneurs then this is a good subject for you to consider. Business Studies A-Level is well regarded as a means of preparing for a wide range of university courses and particularly for those which have a business studies or management content.

It is also a useful preparation if you are considering starting your own business or wish to follow a career in finance, accounting, marketing, management and other business related areas. Whatever your career plans, Business Studies will suit you if you are looking for a stimulating and challenging course that has a real relevance to everyday life.

Students of the Business A-Level course will study business in a variety of contexts (e.g. large/small, UK focused/global, service/manufacturing) and consider:

• the importance of the context of business in relation to decision making
• the interrelated nature of business activities and how they affect competitiveness
• the competitive environment and the markets in which businesses operate
• the influences on functional decisions and plans including ethical and environmental issues
• the factors that might determine whether a decision is successful e.g. the quality of data and the degree of uncertainty
• how technology is changing the way decisions are made and how businesses operate and compete
• the impact on stakeholders of functional decisions and their response to such decisions
• use of non-quantitative and quantitative data in decision making

Assessment

All units will be assessed by written papers.

The broad nature of A-Level Business Studies means that it is an excellent complement to most other A-Level courses offered at the College. There are significant overlaps with other Social Sciences such as Economics, Geography, Sociology, Government and Politics but also with other subjects such as Psychology and Art. The importance of critical thinking skills is shared with English and the need for quantitative analysis makes A-Level Mathematics a valuable combination.

Recent destinations of our A-Level Business Studies graduates include:

City, University of London to study Business Management

Kings College London to study Economics and Management

Loughborough University to study International Business

UCL to study Management Science

University of Durham to study Marketing and Management