Students can opt to study A-Level Business or an OCR Cambridge Technicals Level 3 in Business.

Why Choose Business A-Level?

With a focus on helping you to become a good decision maker, you’ll learn essential managerial skills, alongside techniques to help you become an analytical problem solver. These skills are all highly sought after and valued in a wide range of careers.

What will I study and Learn?

If you’d like to study business, finance or management at university, A-level Business provides an excellent foundation. The skills you learn are transferable across a broad range of subjects and careers. Whatever you choose to do in the future, you’ll find that the things you learn on this course will help. For example, you’ll probably work with lots of different people, so knowledge of motivational theory will help you to work well with others and help them achieve their potential. You might have ambitious plans to start your own business. If that’s the case, you’ll find the marketing and finance topics particularly useful.

Year 12

• Topic 1 – What is business?
• Topic 2 – Managers, leadership and decision-making
• Topic 3 – Decision-making to improve marketing performance
• Topic 4 – Decision-making to improve operational performance
• Topic 5 – Decision-making to improve financial performance
• Topic 6 – Decision-making to improve human resource performance

Year 13

• Topic 7 – Analysing the strategic position of a business
• Topic 8 – Choosing the strategic direction
• Topic 9 – Strategic methods: how to pursue strategies
• Topic 10 – Managing strategic change

Exam papers use a variety of assessment styles including multiple choice, short answer, data response, essay and case studies so that students feel more confident and engage with the questions. Real life case studies will be used wherever possible to make it easier for students to relate to and apply their knowledge and skills developed throughout the course.

• Paper 1: All content covered - written exam: 2 hours, 100 marks, 33.3% of A-level
• Paper 2: All content covered - written exam: 2 hours, 100 marks, 33.3% of A-level
• Paper 3: All content covered - written exam: 2 hours, 100 marks, 33.3% of A-level

Why Choose Business?

OCR Cambridge Technical Level 3 in Business is designed to give you a practical understanding about how businesses work and will put you at an advantage in your future career plans. It is an introduction to the world of work, and it opens doors to a wide range of university degree courses.

Aimed at anyone who wishes to develop an understanding of business operations, this course will help you to appreciate how and why business decisions are made and how they affect a variety of people, both within the business and in the greater community.

You will study the internal business functions such as Finance, Marketing and Market Research, Production, Human Resources and Customers and Communication, as well as external factors such as Law, Economics and Politics.

What Will I Study and Learn, and How Is the Course Assessed?

Year 12

• Unit 16: Principles of Project Management (Coursework unit)
• Unit 2: Working in business (Exam unit – January) Unit 1: The business environment (Exam unit - May)

Year 13

• Unit 4: Customers and communication (Coursework unit)
• Unit 5: Marketing and market research (Coursework unit)

Progression Routes:

The knowledge and experience of business you develop through this course will be invaluable for future employment in a wide range of settings. You can consider an apprenticeship or courses in higher education and take on roles such as business manager, purchasing manager, customer service manager, sales accounts manager or move on to start up your own business.