What you will learn
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Unit 1 - What is Business?
- Different types of business
- Mission statements
- Business and the external environment
- Environmental issues and fair trade
- Cost and demand
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Unit 2 - Managers, Leadership and Decision Making
- Difference between managers and leaders
- Types of management and leadership styles
- Influences on the styles of management and leaders
- The types of decisions a business makes
- Stakeholders
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Unit 3 - Decision Making to Improve Marketing Performance
- The purpose of marketing
- Marketing objectives
- Ethical and environmental marketing object objectives
- Types of market research
- Qualitative market research
- Quantitative market research
- Market mapping
- Understanding extrapolation
- Interpretation of price and income elasticities of demand
- Segmentation, targeting and positioning
- The marketing mix
- The promotional mix
- The product life cycle
- Types of distribution channel
- Digital marketing and E-commerce
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Unit 4 - Decision Making to Improve Operational Performance
- Setting operational objectives
- Analysing operational performance
- Increasing efficiency and productivity
- Managing quality
- Managing inventory and supply chains
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Unit 5 - Decision Making to Improve Financial Performance
- Types of financial objective
- Return on investment
- The distinction between cash flow and profit
- Gross profit, operating profit, and profit for the year
- Types of budget
- Value of budgeting
- How to analyse profitability
- Different sources of finance
- Improving cash flow and profits
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Unit 6 - Decision Making to Improve Human Resource Performance
- Human resource objectives
- Maintaining good employer and employee relations
- Internal and external influences on HR objectives and decisions
- Organisational structures and influences
- Recruitment
- Human resource / workforce planning
- Importance of effective recruitment and selection
- Training
- Redeployment
- Redundancy
- Theories of motivation
- Methods of employee representation
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Unit 7 - Analysing the Strategic Position of a Business
- Mission corporate objectives and strategy
- The distinction between strategy and tactics
- SWOT Analyses
- The value of a SWOT Analysis
- Analysing balance sheets
- Classifying business expenditure
- Profitability and performance ratios
- Financial performance indicators
- Political and legal change
- Economic change and Gross Domestic Product (GDP)
- Social and technological change
- Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) reporting
- Competitive environment
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Unit 8 - Choosing Strategic Direction
- The factors influencing which markets to compete in and which products to offer
- Ansoff’s Matrix
- Competitive advantage
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Unit 9 - Strategic Methods: How to Pursue Strategies
- The differences between organic and external growth
- Issues involved with managing growth
- The experience curve
- Greiner’s Model of Growth
- Assessing innovation
- Assessing internationalisation
- The pressures to adopt digital technology
- Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)
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Unit 10 - Managing Strategic Change
Causes of and pressures for change
The value of change
The value of a flexible organisation
Organic structures vs mechanistic structures
Managing information and knowledge
Kotter and Schlesinger’s Four Reasons for Resistance to Change
The importance of organisational culture
The influences on organisational culture
Managing strategic implementation
Planned vs emergent strategy
The value of strategic planning
The value of contingency planning
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Preparing for the examinations
Awarding Body
As a leading distance learning provider, our courses are accredited by the main UK awarding bodies and recognised by UCAS, the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service. By completing our online A-Level Business course, you will receive up to 56 UCAS points, which are used as part of university applications, and issued by AQA.
Course Outcome
Upon successful completion of this home learning course, you will receive an A-level in Business (7132), issued by AQA, the leading awarding body. Your certificate is identical to that issued to students at any other school, college or university.
How is this course assessed or examined?
You can enrol now for A-level Business examinations for Summer 2024.
You’ll be required to complete three standard A-level written exams:
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- Paper 1: 2 hours, 33.3% of A-level, 100 marks.
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- Paper 2: 2 hours, 33.3% of A-level, 100 marks.
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- Paper 3: 2 hours, 33.3% of A-level, 100 marks.
These exams contain a mixture of short and long answer questions and extended response questions.
Entry requirements
A general education up to GCSE level or equivalent is recommended for this Business A-levels course. This is an online course, so you will also need access to the Internet. This course is a difficulty level three: the equivalent difficulty of an A-level or BTEC, usually suitable for most learners of all ages.
