Hello and welcome to this pre-recorded event for Delivering Pearson's new AS and A level
Business specifications from 2015: Theme 1.
To help you get the most out of this session,
you may want to have the following documents handy as we will refer to them during the
session: A level Business specification. Getting Started Guide. Theme 1 Planning Activity
All of these documents can be downloaded from the Business subject page.
Let's start by reminding ourselves of the specification structure.
Theme 1 looks at marketing and people, while Theme 2 focuses on business activities, including
finance and business operations.
These themes have the same content in both the AS and A level qualification.
Theme 3 builds on the content in Theme 2, exploring business decisions and strategy.
Theme 4 has a global focus and builds on Theme 1 content.
There are two externally examined papers for the AS qualification; Theme 1 is assessed
in Paper 1 and Theme 2 is assessed in Paper 2. In each paper, the final question (Section
C) asks students to make connections across both themes. For example, turn to page 17
in the AS sample assessment. In this example, question 3 asks students to evaluate how the
finances of a business (a concept in Theme 2) is impacted by using a pricing strategy
(a Theme 1 concept).
The content for Theme 1 and Theme 2 is the same for the AS and A level qualifications.
This means that even though the AS and A level qualifications are separate, you can co-teach them.
There are three externally examined papers
for the A level qualification; Theme 1 and Theme 4 are assessed in Paper 1, Theme 2 and
Theme 3 are assessed in Paper 2, and paper 3 assesses content from across the entire
course, bringing all the concepts together. Paper 3 has a pre-released context which will
be made available to centres in November (6 months before the exam) to enable you to use
this context in the classroom.
Linear courses with all exams taken at the end may
require different teaching approaches. Before we look at Theme 1 in detail, these
slides introduce some things you might like to think about or things you might do already!
Our specification places emphasis on real businesses and real business contexts; for
example, real businesses are used in all the assessments. From the start of the course
you can introduce businesses which students know and are engaged by. Theme 1 starts with
marketing, enabling you to incorporate big brands, products and businesses which will
grab your students' interest straight away. The structure of our specification supports
skills progression throughout the course.
This thematic structure also provides opportunities for students to revise concepts and build
skills on an ongoing basis. In addition, we have integrated quantitative skills throughout
the themes so students can develop these in real business contexts as they move through
the course. In addition to the 'business maths' of ratios, you could provide students with
a range of data sources as they progress. In theme 1 quantitative opportunities include
market research data, the interaction of supply and demand, and price and income elasticity
of demand.
Our Getting Started Guide provides details about the transferable skills which can be
developed through business and offers suggestions of how to incorporate these in the teaching
and learning. We've included skills for university progression
throughout the course.
As part of this, our papers have a range of extended writing questions (ranging from 10
to 20 marks in the A level) and there will be plenty of opportunities for students to
practice their extended writing. Remember that as A levels are now linear qualifications,
all assessments are taken at the end of the course so students develop extended writing
throughout the course of study. Our research showed that universities were keen for A level
students to develop extended writing skills, demonstrating their ability to build and sustain
business arguments.
The skills students will learn in AS and A level are the same (for example, the requirements
within 'assess' and 'evaluate' questions are consistent). These means that skills, including
extended writing, can be developed from Theme 1.
Our thematic structure enables students to develop knowledge and understanding as they
progress through the course.
This means that they are encouraged to reinforce concepts they have studied at the beginning
of the course later on. For example, students explore the marketing mix in Theme 1 and explore
global marketing strategy in Theme 4. This supports continuous progression throughout
the whole A level course of study. We're now going to summarise the highlights
in Theme 1.
You might want to refer to the specification (or have your hard copy to hand) as we go
through this section. You can also refer to the Getting Started Guide, which includes
teaching and learning ideas for each topic. Theme 1 introduces students to the market,
explores the marketing and people functions, and investigates entrepreneurs and business
start-ups.
Students must cover a range of different types and sizes of business in various sectors and
environments, and consider local, national and global contexts.
This topic explores markets and customer wants and needs.
Issues to explore include: markets are made up of buyers and sellers. Successful businesses
will be part of a market that is different in size and character, and affected by change.
Within markets, customers have needs and wants needs, like water, are unavoidable but wants
are different in the sense that the consumer will have some choice about them. A successful
product or service and therefore business will most likely benefit from effective market
research to enable the business to provide consumers with the choices that meet their
needs and wants. A successful business will position itself in a market in such a way
as to ensure effective sales in what may be a very competitive environment.
Highlights within this topic include an emphasis on dynamic markets and the use of ICT.
This topic looks at the market in more detail.
It focuses on the interaction between buyers (consumers) and sellers (producers) and explores
the factors that affect demand and supply, determining price levels and sales. The sensitivity
of demand to price changes and changes in income provide opportunities for demonstrating
quantitative skills. New quantitative skills introduced here are price elasticity of demand
and income elasticity of demand. The emphasis in this topic is on the impact of the market
and changes in market conditions on business and should not be viewed as a topic on economics!
This topic explores the marketing mix and strategy.
Students will explore the appropriate nature of the marketing mix (the 4Ps product, promotion,
price and place) for new or existing products or services. Students will also consider how
social trends may affect the marketing mix; the Boston Matrix, the product life cycle
and its related sales extension strategies, with reference to product and promotional
methods; and marketing strategies that relate to niche, mass, business to business or business
to consumer marketing, and the benefits and limitations of these strategies.
Social trends are considered within each element of the marketing mix to keep content and examples
up-to-date and allow relevant/topical case studies to be used in class. It also means
students can be engaged by recent developments in this area.
This topic focuses on managing people.
In this section the focus is on human resource issues, with consideration of how employees
can be effectively recruited, deployed, developed and trained, motivated, managed and led. The
specific theories/theorists required are listed in the specification others can be used (and
will be rewarded in the assessments) for context. The specification does not require learning
lots of theories but students must understand the key principles in these areas.
A look at entrepreneurs and leaders completes Theme 1.
This topic focuses on how people set up and succeed in operating their own business and
the constraints they might face in doing so. Students will also consider the people skills
and personal qualities that entrepreneurs will most likely need to succeed; what drives
people to set up their own business; business objectives; and the various forms of business
ownership and the choices which typically face owners of a business.
The emphasis here is on understanding entrepreneurs and that they have different motives and objectives.
Students will also consider entrepreneurs developing into leaders.
This slide provides an overview of one way you might approach planning for these new
topics.
Have a look at the Planning Activity document for Theme 1. The purpose of this resource
is to demonstrate an approach to building a bank of knowledge/background information
for different topics, so is not indicative of the specification coverage. The approach
taken in this resource is to identify:
What do students need to know? (You can use resources such as the Getting Started Guide
to help with this.) What examples can you use to illustrate this
(to support students with application) (You can refer to resources such as our Scheme
of Work to help) What causes and consequences/linkages can
you think of? What evaluative points can be made?
How can this content be revisited later in the specification where are the links?
How will you revise this when teaching themes 3 and 4?
If you think this approach will work for you and your department, why not adapt this for
each topic so you can build a bank of resources. I've mentioned some of the support available
to help you deliver Theme 1 so I'd now like to spend a bit of time reminding you of the
support we're providing. Our Getting Started Guide provides an overview
of the new AS and A level specifications to help you get to grips with the changes to
content and assessment, and to help you understand what these changes mean for you and your students.
The guide includes suggested teaching and learning approaches for each theme in the
specifications.
Editable course planners can be adapted to fit your timetabling and staffing arrangements.
There is a thematic course planner which broadly follows the order in which content is set
out in the specification and is designed to support those planning to co-teach AS and
A level. The integrated course planner is a suggested approach for those intending not
to co-teach the AS level qualification.
Whether you're thinking of staying with or switching to Pearson Edexcel for the 2015
AS and A level Business specifications, Specification Mapping documents are easy reference guides
to help you identify key comparisons and differences between the 2008 and 2015 specifications.
Suggested activities and teaching points are included in an editable scheme of work to
support you in planning to teach the new course.
Our options evening materials will help you discuss the new AS and A Level Business specification
with students and parents, and explore the different pathways and careers our qualifications
can provide.
Exemplar student work and examiner commentaries will support you in understanding the standard.
The student work has been generated by A level leavers trialling the new assessments. We
are also working on specimen papers so you will have a set of A level papers to use as
mocks.
Make the most of our free ResultsPlus service for tracking your students' progress. ResultsPlus
is a free online results analysis tool for teachers that gives you a detailed breakdown
of your students' performance in Edexcel exams. Widely used by teachers across the country,
ResultsPlus provides the most detailed analysis available of your students' performance and
helps you to identify topics and skills where your students could benefit from further learning,
helping them gain a deeper understanding of their subject.
We are also launching our examWizard service for A level Business. examWizard is a free
online resource for teachers containing a huge bank of past paper questions and support
materials to help you create your own mock exams and tests.
Our national training programme of events will continue to provide you with training
solutions. Watch out for support with Themes 3 and 4 as well as training for mocks marking
in 2016.
And of course our subject advisor for business, Colin Leith, is always here to help. Colin's
contact details will be displayed at the end of this session.
This is the main AS and A level Business subject page.
All of the free support materials are available to download from the Business pages of our
website. To find this page, go to Qualifications, A levels, Business.
Choose the 'Specification' tab to download copies of the specification and sample assessment
materials, summary information about the reforms and introduction to the course. Scroll down
to find contact information for Colin, links to our subject community and subject pages.
The 'Course materials' tab is the place to access all the documents.
The 'Teaching support' tab gives you a clear overview of all the support we have available.
The 'Training and events; tab provides a quick link to the training events we have on offer.
We're also working with publishers on endorsed resources. However, it is not necessary to
purchase endorsed resources to deliver our new qualification.
Here is a summary of the publishers we're working with. If you would like to find out
more about these resources, please visit the publishers' websites.
We're almost at the end of the session now but there are a couple more things I'd like
to tell you about before you go. We're recruiting examiners for our new specification.
If you would like to know more, please visit our website.
Please get in touch with Colin and his team if you need any further help or support.
Colin and our online business community will ensure you receive help and guidance from
us as well as sharing ideas and information with each other. You can sign up to receive
e-newsletters from Colin to keep up-to-date with qualification updates, and product and
service news.
Thank you for listening to our event today.