This course allows students to cover a wide range of business topics and will provide real world experiences. The topic of the business environment, will give learners an understanding of the wider external contexts in which businesses operate and of internal business functions and their interdependencies. The unit will allow them to appreciate how legal, financial, ethical and resource constraints can affect business behaviour and the influence that different stakeholders can have and how businesses must respond. Working in business, will give them an understanding of the type of critical skills needed when working in business, such as organisation, prioritisation and effective communication. The unit will allow them to learn how to use different business documents and about organisational protocols that most businesses would expect employees to follow. Customers and communication, will allow learners to appreciate how vital customers are to the success of a business. It will give them an understanding of how important it is for businesses to know their customers and what influences customer behaviour. In this unit, they will understand how to communicate with customers. Additional Support: Students are supported throughout their course including tracking students’ coursework progress using OCR tracking documents. Students will receive regular exam practice followed by thorough feedback. Students will be confident in being able to apply their answers to real business related scenarios and will be able to approach exam and coursework questions appropriately depending on the command word. Pupils also receive regular folder or book checks to make sure their classwork is completed in detail and remains well organised for revision. Progression Routes: Knowledge of business is critical in the 21st century; pupils will develop analytical thinking skills and make informed judgements and realistic business recommendations for a wide variety of business case studies and scenarios. Business Studies is a useful and often necessary subject to seek certification in for certain careers that use the skills listed above, for example: business managers, human resources specialists, marketing managers, accountants, economists, sales managers, and international business relations and operations managers for small and large businesses. Curriculum Leader: MR. CHURCH: jchurch@barnhill.school