Members of Staff List

Miss C. Calveley: Programme Director: Business Education & Enterprise
Mrs J. Howard
Miss. J. Harding

Business Studies Overview

Course Duration: 2 Years
Qualification Type: GCSE

Exam Board: Edexcel (http://www.edexcel.com/quals/gcse/gcse09/Business/Business/Pages/default.aspx)

Business Education – Year 10

Pupils who have opted for the new Business Education GCSE are introduced to the course by participating in a Business Simulation project. The project enables learners to explore the realities of running a business in a safe classroom environment. The project is designed to introduce key terminology and business concepts to learners with little or no experience of this subject area. Learners will draw upon their experiences in a group presentation and individual summative report to complete this project.
Currently pupils are working at a PASS level in the business simulation project. In September formal GCSE assessment will be used to monitor and feedback on learners progress.

The Business Education course spans two years and culminates in one GCSE comprised of 2 examinations and one controlled assessment. In September the focus of Business Education lessons have a great deal of content to cover, this is achieved through a varied curriculum made up of independent pupil lead projects, traditional academic study, research based projects and opportunities to meet local business representatives.

Unit 1 – Business Education
This unit is a compulsory unit and concentrates on the key issues and skills involved in enterprise. It provides a framework to consider the marketing, financial, human and operational issues involved in starting and running a small business. This unit contains five topic areas:

Topic 1.1 Spotting a business opportunity
The key to success in identifying a new business opportunity is careful research and analysis of a local or national market. This enables a business to gain insight into its marketplace (both customers and competitors) and focus on identifying a competitive advantage or opportunity.

Topic 1.2 Showing enterprise
This topic looks at the skills needed to be enterprising. This involves asking questions and seeking answers without feeling the need for certainty. These skills could be of benefit in any workplace situation, but especially in the context of a business start-up.

Topic 1.3 Putting a business idea into practice
This topic considers the practicalities of making a business idea happen and emphasizes how focus on the financial aspects should not distract from the importance of effective management of marketing and human factors.

Topic 1.4 Making the start-up effective
This topic focuses on the customer and staff, showing that success in any business is based on far more than the skills or inspiration of a single individual; business is about people, not a person.

Topic 1.5 Understanding the economic context
The emphasis here is the factors outside the control of the business that may prevent it from meeting its objectives such as market supply and demand, the impact of the change in interest or exchange rates, stakeholders or business cycles.

This unit will be externally assessed in the form of a 45 minute examination made up of MCQ’s.

Business Studies – Year 11

This unit builds on Units 1 and examines how a business develops beyond the start-up phase. It focuses on practical methods used to build up a business, with an emphasis on aspects of marketing, customer service, financial and people management. It also considers the impact of the wider world on the success or failure of a business. Students need to appreciate that organisational success requires an understanding of the business as a whole: the interactions between departments and the relationship between the business and outside forces. This unit consists of five topic areas:

Topic 3.1 Marketing
This topic considers how to make a business stand out in a competitive marketplace. Businesses need to think constantly about how to gain an advantage over the competition, through either product, service or image. Students should distinguish between tactical ways of boosting sales temporarily and strategic ways of developing the business in the medium term.

Topic 3.2 Meeting customer needs
This topic focuses on how to achieve customer satisfaction and therefore, repeat purchase. It brings in elements of operations management to provide a rounded approach to the process of meeting or exceeding customer expectations.

Topic 3.3 Effective financial management
This topic focuses on how to achieve customer satisfaction and therefore, repeat purchase. It brings in elements of operations management to provide a rounded approach to the process of meeting or exceeding customer expectations.

Topic 3.4.Effective people management
This topic focuses on how to achieve customer satisfaction and therefore, repeat purchase. It brings in elements of operations management to provide a rounded approach to the process of meeting or exceeding customer expectations.

Topic 3.5 The wider world affecting business
Successful operations need to be turned into financial success, if only to finance the development of the business. This section considers how to achieve this. The emphasis is on financial decision making, not the recording of information on a Profit and Loss Account or balance sheet.

This unit will be externally assessed in the form of a written examination lasting 1 hour 30 minutes. The paper is untiered and divided into three sections. Questions will require a mixture of multiple-choice selection, short- and extended/ long-answers. Sections B and C will both consist of questions based on a scenario given in the paper.

Controlled Assessment

Pupils are required to complete a controlled assessment which is worth 25% of their overall GCSE grade. This assessment is undertaken during the Autuum / Spring term in year 2 of the course.

Travel and Tourism

Course Duration: 1 – 2 years (depending on pathway)
Qualification Type: OCR Level 2 Nationals

Exam Board: OCR http://www.ocr.org.uk/qualifications/type/nationals/tra_tou/l2/documents/index.html

Pupils will either participate on this course as an addition to their Business GCSE if they are on an accelerated learning path, or can choose to take this course as an option in year 10 as an alternative to the traditional GCSE.

OCR Nationals are exam-free, vocationally-related qualifications that take an engaging, practical approach to learning and assessment. They’re industry-relevant, geared to key sector requirements and very popular with schools and colleges because they suit such a broad range of learning styles and abilities.

OCR Nationals candidates practice and develop strong skills vital for the modern workplace, gaining genuine insight into a variety of exciting sectors and industries.

Level 2 gives students insights into the precise nature of the travel and tourism business. Students will take an in-depth look at types of tourist attractions, how customer needs are met and how to plan and promote a destination. The optional units further develop the practical skills students will need to pursue a career in this fascinating industry or progress to further education.

Pupils study 3 main units:

Unit 1 — Exploring travel and tourism
• developing an understanding of the travel and tourism
industry
• examining the services offered and job roles involved
within in a chosen industry sector.

Unit 2 — Dealing with customers in travel and tourism
• providing customer care within a travel and tourism
environment
• studying the elements and delivery of excellent customer
care.

Unit 3 — Promoting travel and tourism
• exploring the use of promotion in the travel and tourism
industries
• producing promotional material to market a chosen venue.

Young Enterprise

Since 2005 we have run Young Enterprise as an extra curricular activity. Young Enterprise is a hands-on experience of business. Pupils follow basic business principles to successfully set up and run their own business. Pupils choose their own groups (6 – 20 per group) and meet every Thursday for 2 hours to develop and run business. Pupils are supported by a Business Mentor and Link Teachers.

Young Enterprise is an International Competition with “round” levels at Local, County, National and International Level. In both 2006 and 2007 Hollingworth collected prizes for Company of the Year for the Rochdale and Oldham Area Boards. In 2008 Mr. Colin Townsley, our then voulntry business mentor won Business Mentor of the Year for the North West region beating nominations from the Rochdale, Oldham, Trafford and Bury areas. In 2011 we were thrilled to recieve confirmation from Young Enterprise HQ that Hollingworth are to be presented with a Young Enterprise Centres of Excellence plaque.

Pupils are entered for an NVQ Qualification in Enterprise in March and will over the year develop skills in the following areas:

 Social
 Financial Awareness
 Negotiation
 Time Management
 Self Esteem
 Business Acumen.

The NVQ has both Higher and Foundation Tier Entry.

The Young Enterprise programme is open to any year 10 pupils regardless of ability. Pupils are expected to only bring with them enthusiasm and commitment. The program runs every Thursday 2:00 – 3:00 in the ELC. Pupils apply in September following an assembly by Miss Calveley.

www.youngenterprise.org.uk