This course will suit you if you have an interest in current affairs and economic events and want to learn the skills to be able to make sense of them; want to know how government policies may affect your life, your town and the UK as a whole. For micro economics in the first year students will study Theme 1 (the introduction to markets and market failure). Students will become experts in being able to analyse consumer and producer patterns of behaviour within a market for a given good or service. Skills to be able to apply and interpret charts and data will be developed in order to make predictions and explain how the pricing mechanism can affect consumption and production. In Theme 2 (the UK economy - performance and policies), students become familiar with macroeconomic concepts. Familiar terms from everyday news and current affairs such as unemployment, GDP, inflation and interest rates are applied to economic theory to give students an understanding of the government's decision making process.