This exciting new program of study aims to equip students with the academic knowledge and practical skills to become an effective business person. The course is vocational and the students complete work that is applied to the real business world and this is developed through theory lessons, project-style work, assessment under controlled conditions, and examined units. Unit 1: Exploring Business - This unit is an introduction to the world of business and includes business sectors, business ownership, business aims and objectives, stakeholders in business, assessing a business in terms of conducting a SWOT and PESTLE analysis, an introduction to the economics of supply and demand, and innovation and invention. Unit 2: Developing a Marketing Campaign - This unit is a hands-on unit where students need to create a marketing campaign for a given business. Students receive a resources pack on a given business and are required to look at the context of market research, the validity of primary and secondary research, the market’s size, share and growth, market segmentation, models such SWOT, PESTLE and the product life cycle, the 4 Ps (the Marketing Mix), costing a campaign and creating a plan for the given business. Unit 3: Personal and Business Finance - This is an examined unit, and the course is split between personal and business finance. In the personal finance section, students learn about bank accounts, borrowing money, the Financial Services Authority, and decisions around the type of borrowing in personal circumstances. In the Business finance part, students learn sources of finance, cash flow forecasting, breakeven analysis, accounting and accounting ratios, profit and loss accounts, balance sheets, and business decision-making around this data. Unit 8: Recruitment and Selection - The final unit is more about the student and their aspirations. The unit enables students to build a portfolio of research around chosen careers and students are asked to create the documents around the recruitment and selection process for a chosen position. Students need to create the documents required by the business from the applicants – CVs, cover letters, and application forms. Students then have a role-play section where they act as both interviewer and interviewee for a chosen position. Students will then analyze and critique their performances in the process and set out their own next steps.