Year 13 Business Studies Curriculum Plan

The Department

We study the A2 specification as directed by AQA. Those who take Business Studies at this level must have passed AS level.

BUSS3 Strategies for Success

Financial Strategies and Accounts

Cash flow targets, cost targets, profitabilty targets
Using Financial information to assess performance.
Look at Balance sheets and P&L accounts.
Working capital/ profit quality/ depreciation.
Understanding published accounts.
Ratio analysis, when and how to use them.
Measuring and comparing performance.
Making Investment decisions
Investment appraisal techniques
Payback, ARR and NPV

Human Resource Sreategies

HR objectives.Hard/soft. Minimising labour costs
Developing work force plans
Organisational structures and benefits of different types.Centralised/decentralised/delayering
Employer/employee relations.Trades Unions/ works councils

Operational Strategies

Economies/dieconomies of scale/ choosing the correct scale. Link to capacity use and capital and labour intensity.
Innovation and R&D.
Location.
Lean production and components involved ie.JIT/Kaizen
Critical path Ananlysis

Marketing Strategies

Marketing objectives.
Market Analysis.
Looking at Extrapolation/trends/moving averages/predictions of the future/sales forecasting/test markets.
Selecting a marketing strategy/Ansoffs matrix
Developing Market Plans. What goes in them and how they are used.

BUSS4 The Business environment and Managing Change

Corporate Aims and Objectives

Mission Statements and corporate strategy

Assessing the Business Environment

Relationship of business with the economy.
I do a short course on the basics of Macro economics to include the following;
Business Cycle; Interest rates; exchange rates; economic growth;
Economic policy and its implementation; Inflation; Unemployment; economic growth.
All the time linking this directly to Business and its effects on Business.

The relationship between Business and social environment.
To include social responsibility and ethics

The relationship between business and technology and change

Business and the competitive environment.

Mananging Change

Causes of change
Planning change
Influences on change
Business culture and change
Implementing change

Assessment

The students take two examinations in their second year.
In the January of the second year they will take:-
A2 Unit 3. BUSS3 Strategiesv for Success
In the summer of their second year, one further module is taken.
A2 Unit 4 BUSS4 The Business environment and managing change.

There is also the possibility of resiting earlier modules at AS and A2 in order to raise their grades

Links to the Web
S -Cool
Bized

Tutor2u
BBC Business
Exams Tutor
Revision Guru
The Guardian
Mind Tools
Marketing Teacher
Orange Education
AQA
Institute of Business Ethics