/ Course Outline The following course outline intends to help teachers in their planning. However, we must stress that there are many other ways of organising the specification content, and these suggestions should not be seen as prescriptive. This outline assumes learners will be taught for 4 hours per week. There may be slight differences with the timings due to the different term dates in the UK. This plan assumes that learners will be entered for the AS examinations at the end of the one year AS course. Component 1 and 2 of the AS specification are the same as Component 1 of the A Level specification. YEAR 1 (complete AS delivery) TERM ONE Week Specification Content Specification Amplification Possible Activities 1 INTRODUCTION Aims and objectives, stakeholders ENTERPRISE Needs and wants and business opportunities The meaning of enterprise and SMEs. How satisfying needs and wants can give opportunities to entrepreneurs. Investigate and identify, using relevant examples, the features of successful businesses. Analyse the needs and wants of different groups in society, e.g., learners; a young couple with children; a pensioner couple. Explain how BUSINESS
7 MARKETS and income elasticity of demand Understand the concept of price and income elasticity of demand (learners are not required to do calculations). Explain the nature of inferior, normal and luxury goods. Investigate and analyse the demand for different products, e.g., milk, cigarettes and foreign holidays to determine (intuitively) their price elasticity. Investigate and analyse the demand for different products to see what happens when incomes change. Find three examples of each type of goods; inferior, normal and luxury, explaining why they fit into these categories. 8 MARKET RESEARCH Primary and secondary research and quantitative and qualitative research Explain what is meant by market research and the value of carrying it out. Distinguish between primary and secondary market research. Evaluate the use of market research to a business and its stakeholders. Distinguish between qualitative and quantitative data. Explain the different methods of primary and secondary research available to businesses. Explain the issues in selecting the most appropriate method of market research. out market research based on the business plan from week 3, including writing questionnaires and carrying out interviews. Learners to collect examples of different primary research tools used by businesses. Using these, give examples of how qualitative and quantitative data is collected.
Types of ownership provision of goods and services. Evaluate the roles of the public and private sectors in the provision of goods and services. Explain the legal structure of different private sector business organisations including sole traders, partnerships, private and public limited companies. Explain what is by limited and unlimited liability. Explain the advantages and disadvantages of choosing different legal structures. Evaluate the factors affecting the choice of the legal structure of a business. Explain the main features of not-for-profit organisations including social enterprises, charities, co-operatives and societies. Evaluate the importance and impact of the legal structure for the various stakeholders for a business. Identify one example of each type of private sector for-profit business. Explain the advantages and disadvantages of each type of business to its various stakeholders. Study the work done by not-for-profit organisations. Come up with ideas on starting a social enterprise in the local area. Assess how this would benefit and make positive changes to the local community. Choose one organisation and investigate its work. Present your findings.
Job, and flow Explain what is meant by added value. Calculate added value. Explain ways of increasing added. Evaluate the importance of value to a business and its stakeholders. Explain the different methods of production including job, batch and flow. Evaluate appropriate methods of production for businesses. Draw diagrams for two different products to illustrate the chain of production and the process of adding value. Identify a product that adds amounts of value along the production process. How does this benefit the business? Discuss how brands can add to their goods and services – Which factors help them the most and how? Investigate businesses, each using different methods of production, e.g., tailor made suits; bread; steel. Explain the advantages and disadvantages to each business of the method of production that it uses. 27 OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT Productivity Explain what is meant by productivity. Understand ways of measuring productivity. Using real or imagined data calculate productivity and capacity utilisation for three different businesses.
production and time-based management. Evaluate the importance and impact of lean production for a business and their stakeholders. 29 OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT Quality Explain what is meant by quality. Analyse the importance of quality to a business. Explain the difference between quality control and quality assurance. Explain the concept of Quality Management (TQM) and the ways it can be achieved including quality chains, empowerment, monitoring, teamwork, zero defects, quality circles and benchmarking. What are the benefits of maintaining high standards of quality for a business? Describe the work of businesses whose success can be put down to an improvement in quality. Describe one example of a business that has introduced TQM and explain how this has benefited the business.
YEAR 2 (A level delivery) TERM FOUR Week Specification Content Specification Amplification Possible Activities 1 DATA ANALYSIS Present, interpret and analyse data, including pie charts, histograms and numbers. Analyse a variety of data from published sources, e.g., newspapers, journals, websites (please note that learners are not required to calculate index numbers). 2 MARKET ANALYSIS Analyse quantitative and qualitative research data in to better understand the position of the business in the market and the requirements of customers at present and in the future. Calculate price and income elasticity of demand. Interpret numerical values of price and income elasticity of demand. Evaluate the impact of changes in and income on business revenue. In groups use market research reports (e.g. Mintel) to investigate one industry per (e.g., cars, confectionery, mobile phones) in order to analyse the results and present findings. Use actual or contrived data to calculate several price and income elasticities and interpret their impact on relevant businesses. 3 - SALES FORECASTING Explain what is meant by sales forecasting. Compare quantitative and qualitative sales forecasting data (actual or invented) for a number of businesses, showing both sales growth and sales decline. Analyse and interpret the data. Use data to practise calculations, graphs etc.
Explain the difference between organic and external growth. Analyse the advantages and disadvantages of organic growth. Analyse the advantages and disadvantages of different methods of external growth including mergers and takeovers. Explain the nature and purpose of franchising as a method of growth. Evaluate different methods that businesses can use to achieve growth. Explain what is by rationalisation. Explain the factors that affect decisions about location/relocation and rationalisation. Evaluate the impact of the choice of location/relocation and rationalisation on a business and its stakeholders. Explain what is meant by outsourcing production. Investigate franchise businesses from the point of view of the franchisor and the franchisee. Investigate one example of rationalisation and explain the advantages and disadvantages to the stakeholders of the business. Investigate one business that has outsourced production and identify the advantages and disadvantages to the business and its stakeholders.
20 RISK MANAGEMENT Identify the risks that businesses are likely to encounter, including natural disasters, failure of equipment/technology, employee error, supply problems, economic factors, legal challenges, public relations and product failures. Explain that some are more certain to happen than others and that this will affect the decision as to how much a business will be willing to spend on their prevention. Explain the importance of risk assessment as a tool for avoiding risks. Explain how some risks can be dealt with by preventative actions such as installing water sprinklers, backing up IT data and training employees. Explain the difference between insurable and uninsurable risks. Explain what is meant by contingency planning and crisis management. Research instances of businesses that have been affected by risk factors and analyse the way that they have responded to these risks. Study the section on risk in the annual report of one plc. Explain how the business intends to deal with the anticipated risk factors. Investigate news articles online to identify recent examples of businesses crisis management.
Explain how businesses can respond to environmental issues. Evaluate the impact of business activity on the environment. Evaluate the impact on a business of implementing environmentally friendly policies. Suggest ways in businesses might improve their impact on the environment. 25 INTERNATIONAL TRADE Explain what is meant by international trade. Explain the reasons for international trade. Explain what is meant by free trade and protectionism (including tariffs and quotas). Explain what is by a trading bloc and a single market. Evaluate free trade and protectionism to UK businesses and their stakeholders. Explain the challenges to UK businesses of developing new Investigate the UK’s main imports and exports and its main trading partners. Explain how UK businesses and consumers benefit from free trade and how they are affected by protectionist policies.