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Specific Competence: Understand the fundamental reasons businesses exist and how they operate to create value. Learning Activities: Learn about basic economic ideas like needs (things you must have), wants (things you would like to have), scarcity (not enough of something for everyone), and opportunity cost (what you give up when you choose one thing over another). Explore why businesses specialize (focus on one task) and their main goals. Discover the concept of 'adding value' (making something more valuable) and ways to increase it. Expected Standard: Students will be able to define needs, wants, scarcity, and opportunity cost. They will explain the importance of specialization and the overall purpose of business. They will also describe how businesses add value and suggest ways to increase this added value.
Specific Competence: Classify businesses into different economic sectors and explain why these classifications change over time. Learning Activities: Explore the different ways businesses are grouped into primary (getting raw materials, like farming), secondary (making products, like manufacturing), and tertiary (providing services, like banking) sectors. Use real-world examples to understand these groupings. Discuss why the importance of these sectors changes in different economies, such as developed and developing countries. Expected Standard: Students will be able to classify businesses into primary, secondary, and tertiary sectors using examples. They will explain the reasons behind changes in the importance of these sectors in different economies.
Specific Competence: Distinguish between private and public sector businesses within a mixed economy. Learning Activities: Learn how to categorize businesses as either private sector (owned by individuals or groups) or public sector (owned by the government) in an economy that has both. Expected Standard: Students will be able to correctly classify business enterprises as belonging to either the private or public sector in a mixed economy.
Specific Competence: Understand the qualities of successful entrepreneurs, the purpose of a business plan, and how governments support new businesses. Learning Activities: Identify the key traits of people who start successful businesses (entrepreneurs). Learn about the essential parts of a business plan and how it helps entrepreneurs. Discover the reasons and methods governments use to help new businesses get started, such as providing money (grants) or training programs. Expected Standard: Students will be able to list characteristics of successful entrepreneurs. They will describe the contents of a business plan and explain its usefulness. They will also identify ways governments support new business start-ups.
Specific Competence: Identify different ways to measure business size and understand the limitations of these methods. Learning Activities: Explore various methods used to measure how big a business is, such as the number of employees, the total value of products made, or the amount of money invested (capital employed). Discuss why each of these methods might not fully show a business's true size. (Note: Profit is not a way to measure business size). Expected Standard: Students will be able to describe different methods for measuring business size (e.g., number of people employed, value of output, capital employed) and explain the difficulties or limitations of each method.
Specific Competence: Explain the reasons why businesses expand, the different ways they can grow, the challenges of growth, and why some businesses choose to stay small. Learning Activities: Investigate why business owners might want their business to get bigger. Learn about the different strategies businesses use to grow, such as growing from within (internal growth) or merging with other businesses (external growth). Discuss the difficulties that can come with business growth and how businesses might solve these problems. Also, explore the reasons why some businesses prefer to stay small. Expected Standard: Students will be able to explain why business owners might want to expand their business. They will describe different methods of business growth and the problems associated with it, along with potential solutions. They will also explain why some businesses remain small.
Specific Competence: Identify the main causes of business failure, especially why new businesses are more likely to fail. Learning Activities: Learn about the common reasons why businesses fail, such as poor management skills, changes in the business environment (e.g., new competitors, economic downturns), or problems with having enough cash (liquidity problems). Discuss why businesses that are just starting out face a higher risk of failure. Expected Standard: Students will be able to explain the causes of business failure, including lack of management skills, changes in the business environment, and liquidity problems. They will also explain why new businesses face a higher risk of failure.
Specific Competence: Describe the characteristics of various business structures, differentiate between unincorporated and limited companies, understand concepts of risk, ownership, and limited liability, and recommend suitable business forms. Learning Activities: Explore the key features of different business types: sole traders (one owner), partnerships (two or more owners), private limited companies (shares not sold to the public), public limited companies (shares sold to the public), franchises (using another company's business model), and joint ventures (two companies working together). Learn the differences between unincorporated businesses (where the owner's personal assets are at risk) and limited companies (where the owner's personal assets are protected). Understand the ideas of risk, who owns the business, and limited liability (where owners are only responsible for the money they invested). Practice recommending and justifying the best business structure for different situations. Also, look at public sector organizations like public corporations. Expected Standard: Students will be able to describe the main features of sole traders, partnerships, private and public limited companies, franchises, and joint ventures. They will differentiate between unincorporated businesses and limited companies, explaining the concepts of risk, ownership, and limited liability. They will also be able to recommend and justify a suitable form of business organization in a given scenario and identify business organizations in the public sector.
Specific Competence: Understand the need for business objectives, identify different types of objectives, and recognize that their importance can change, including objectives for social enterprises. Learning Activities: Discuss why businesses need clear goals (objectives) and why these goals are important. Learn about various business objectives, such as survival (staying in business), growth (getting bigger), profit (making money), and market share (proportion of total sales). Explore the specific goals of social enterprises (businesses with social or environmental aims). Expected Standard: Students will be able to explain the need for and importance of business objectives. They will identify different business objectives (e.g., survival, growth, profit, market share) and explain how their importance can change. They will also describe the objectives of social enterprises.
Specific Competence: Identify internal and external stakeholder groups, understand their objectives, and explain how these objectives might conflict. Learning Activities: Identify the main groups of people or organizations that have an interest in a business (stakeholders), both inside the business (internal, like employees) and outside (external, like customers or suppliers). Learn about what each of these stakeholder groups wants from the business. Discuss with examples how the goals of different stakeholder groups can clash with each other. Expected Standard: Students will be able to identify main internal and external stakeholder groups. They will describe the objectives of different stakeholder groups and explain, using examples, how these objectives can conflict.
Specific Competence: Compare and contrast the objectives of businesses in the private sector with those in the public sector. Learning Activities: Learn about the different goals that private sector businesses (often focused on profit or growth) have compared to public sector businesses (often focused on providing services or public good). Expected Standard: Students will be able to explain the differences in objectives between private sector and public sector enterprises.
Specific Competence: Understand why people work, what makes them want to work hard, and how to keep them happy and productive. Know different ways businesses can encourage employees. Learning Activities: Explain why people work and what "motivation" means. Discuss how having motivated workers helps a business (more work done, fewer sick days, fewer people leaving). Learn about different ideas of human needs, like Maslow's pyramid of needs (where basic needs must be met before higher ones). Study key ideas about motivation from Taylor (money as main motivator) and Herzberg (job satisfaction factors). Identify different financial rewards (like wages, salaries, bonuses, sharing profits) and non-financial ways (like making jobs more interesting, changing jobs, working in teams, training, chances for promotion). Suggest and explain the best ways to motivate workers in different situations. Expected Standard: Students can explain the meaning of motivation, its benefits, and different theories and methods of motivation. They can recommend suitable motivation methods for specific business situations.
Specific Competence: Understand how businesses are structured, the different roles people have, what managers do, different ways leaders lead, and the role of trade unions. Learning Activities: Draw, explain, and understand simple charts showing how a company is organised (levels of bosses, how many people a manager looks after, the chain of command). Describe the jobs and responsibilities of directors, managers, supervisors, and other workers, and how they work together. Explain the main jobs of managers (like planning, organising, guiding, giving orders, checking work). Understand why it's important for managers to give tasks to others (delegation) and the balance between trusting employees and controlling them. Describe the main ways leaders lead (like being bossy, involving everyone, or letting people do their own thing). Suggest and explain the best leadership style for different situations. Explain what a trade union is (a group of workers who join together to protect their rights and interests) and how being a member affects employees. Expected Standard: Students can understand and interpret organisational structures, explain management functions and leadership styles, and describe the role of trade unions. They can recommend appropriate leadership styles.
Specific Competence: Understand how businesses find, choose, train, and manage their workers, including when they might need to reduce staff and the laws that protect employees. Learning Activities: Describe different ways to find and choose new workers. Explain the difference between hiring someone from inside the company and hiring from outside. Outline the main steps in finding and choosing workers. Suggest and explain who should be hired in different situations. Discuss the good and bad points of having part-time and full-time employees. Explain why training is important for both the business and its workers. Discuss the good and bad points of different training methods (like new employee training, training while working, and training away from work). Explain the difference between firing someone (dismissal for bad behavior) and making someone redundant (letting them go because the job is no longer needed, not their fault). Understand reasons why a business might need fewer workers (like machines doing the work or fewer customers wanting products). Suggest and explain which employees to make redundant in different situations. Explain the laws that control how businesses treat employees (like employment contracts, unfair firing, treating people differently, keeping workers safe, and minimum pay). Expected Standard: Students can explain recruitment and selection processes, different training methods, reasons for workforce reduction, and key employment laws. They can recommend appropriate actions in hiring, training, and redundancy situations.
Specific Competence: Understand why good communication is vital in a business, the different ways businesses communicate, and what can stop messages from being understood. Learning Activities: Explain why good communication (sharing information clearly) is important for a business. Discuss the good and bad points of different ways to communicate, including using computers and technology (IT). Suggest and explain the best way to communicate in different situations. Show awareness of things that can stop messages from being understood (communication barriers). Explain how communication problems happen and the issues caused by bad communication. Describe how to make communication better or remove problems. Expected Standard: Students can explain the importance of effective communication, different communication methods, and how to overcome communication barriers. They can recommend appropriate communication methods.
Specific Competence: Students will understand the basic role of marketing, how markets change, and different ways businesses approach customer groups. Learning Activities: Students will learn about identifying and satisfying customer needs, building loyalty, and adapting to changes in customer spending and competition. They will explore niche marketing (selling to a small, specific group) and mass marketing (selling to a large group), and how to divide markets into smaller groups (segmentation) based on factors like age, location, or gender. They will also practice recommending marketing approaches for different situations. Expected Standard: Students can explain the purpose of marketing, describe how markets change, compare niche and mass marketing, and explain how to segment a market, justifying appropriate methods.
Specific Competence: Students will understand why market research is important, how to conduct it using different methods, and how to interpret the results. Learning Activities: Students will learn about the role of market research for businesses. They will distinguish between primary research (collecting new information, for example, through surveys, interviews, or focus groups) and secondary research (using existing information, for example, from government sources or online reports). They will explore various methods for both, understand the need for sampling (asking a small group to represent a larger one), and learn what makes research data accurate. They will also practice analysing market research data presented in graphs and charts to draw simple conclusions. Expected Standard: Students can explain the purpose of market research, describe primary and secondary research methods, identify factors affecting data accuracy, and interpret market research data from graphs and charts.
Specific Competence: Students will understand the four main parts of the marketing mix (product, price, place, promotion) and how technology influences them. Learning Activities: Students will learn about developing new products, the importance of brand image, packaging, and the product life cycle (the stages a product goes through from launch to withdrawal). They will explore various pricing methods (like cost-plus pricing, competitive pricing, penetration pricing, skimming pricing, and promotional pricing) and the concept of price elasticity (how much demand changes when price changes). They will also study different ways products are distributed (channels), such as through wholesalers, retailers, or directly to consumers, and various promotional techniques, including advertising and sales promotions. Additionally, students will learn about e-commerce (buying and selling online), its opportunities and threats, and how businesses use the internet and social media for promotion. They will practice recommending suitable strategies for each part of the mix. Expected Standard: Students can explain and apply the elements of the marketing mix (Product, Price, Place, Promotion), understand the product life cycle, different pricing and distribution methods, promotional strategies, and the impact of e-commerce and social media on marketing.
Specific Competence: Students will understand how to develop overall marketing plans, consider legal rules, and explore opportunities in international markets. Learning Activities: Students will learn to justify marketing strategies suitable for different situations, understanding how each part of the marketing mix influences customer choices. They will also examine the impact of legal controls on marketing (for example, rules against misleading advertising or selling faulty goods). Furthermore, students will explore the benefits and challenges of expanding into new foreign markets, including cultural differences and lack of knowledge. They will learn about methods like joint ventures (working with a local business) or licensing (allowing another company to use your product or brand) to overcome these problems. Expected Standard: Students can recommend and justify marketing strategies, explain the impact of legal controls on marketing, and identify the opportunities and problems of entering foreign markets, suggesting solutions.
Specific Competence: Students will be able to explain how businesses create products and services, and understand different ways to do this efficiently. Learning Activities: Students will learn to define production and productivity, identify ways to increase efficiency, explain why businesses keep stock, describe lean production methods like just-in-time and Kaizen (a method for continuous improvement), and identify job, batch, and flow production methods. They will also learn how technology changes production. Expected Standard: Students will be able to compare production and productivity, explain the benefits of increasing efficiency, describe lean production, outline features of job, batch, and flow production, and discuss how technology affects production. They can recommend a suitable production method for a specific situation.
Specific Competence: Students will be able to identify different types of business costs, understand how business size affects costs, and use a tool called break-even analysis to make business decisions. Learning Activities: Students will learn to classify costs using examples (fixed, variable, average, total). They will explore how larger businesses can save money (economies of scale) and how they can face problems (diseconomies of scale). They will also learn what break-even means, how to draw and read a break-even chart, calculate the break-even point and margin of safety, and understand why break-even analysis has limits. Expected Standard: Students will be able to classify costs, explain economies and diseconomies of scale with examples, construct and interpret a simple break-even chart, calculate break-even output and margin of safety, and use this analysis to make basic business decisions. They will also understand the limitations of break-even analysis.
Specific Competence: Students will be able to explain the importance of producing high-quality goods and services and describe methods businesses use to ensure quality. Learning Activities: Students will learn what 'quality' means in business and why it is very important. They will explore how businesses check for quality through quality control (inspecting products to find defects) and how they build quality into their processes through quality assurance (designing systems to prevent defects). Expected Standard: Students will be able to define quality, explain its importance for businesses, and describe how businesses implement quality control and quality assurance to achieve high-quality production.
Specific Competence: Students will be able to identify and explain the key factors businesses consider when choosing where to set up or move their operations. Learning Activities: Students will learn about the different factors that influence where a manufacturing business or a service business decides to locate. They will also consider factors for locating in different countries and understand the role of government rules on location choices. Expected Standard: Students will be able to identify and explain factors influencing location decisions for different types of businesses, including international locations and legal controls, and recommend and justify an appropriate location for a business in a given situation.
Specific Competence: Students will be able to explain why businesses need money and identify different ways businesses can get the money they need. Learning Activities: Students will learn the main reasons businesses need money, such as starting up, growing, or managing daily expenses. They will understand the difference between needing money for a short time versus a long time. Students will identify various sources of money, including money from inside the business or from outside, and short-term or long-term options like bank overdrafts, loans, or selling shares. They will also learn about new ways to get money, like micro-finance (small loans) and crowd-funding (getting money from many people online), and the factors to consider when choosing a source. Expected Standard: Students will be able to explain why businesses need finance, differentiate between short-term and long-term finance needs, identify and give examples of internal and external sources of finance, including alternative sources, and recommend and justify appropriate sources of finance for different business situations.
Specific Competence: Students will be able to understand the importance of cash for a business, predict future cash movements, and manage the money available for daily operations. Learning Activities: Students will learn why having enough cash is vital for a business. They will understand what a cash-flow forecast is (a prediction of money coming in and out), how to create a simple one, and how to read it. They will also explore ways to solve short-term cash problems, such as using an overdraft (borrowing from the bank) or delaying payments. Additionally, students will learn the meaning and importance of working capital, which is the money a business has for its day-to-day activities. Expected Standard: Students will be able to explain the importance of cash, construct and interpret a simple cash-flow forecast, suggest ways to overcome short-term cash-flow problems, and define and explain the importance of working capital.
Specific Competence: Students will be able to explain what profit is, why it is important for businesses, and understand the main parts of an income statement. Learning Activities: Students will learn how businesses make a profit and why profit is very important, for example, as a reward for taking risks or as a source of money for growth. They will also learn the difference between profit and cash. Students will identify the main parts of an income statement (a report showing a business's profit or loss over a period), such as sales income, cost of goods sold, gross profit, and final profit, and understand how to use this information to help make business decisions. Expected Standard: Students will be able to explain how profit is made and its importance, distinguish between profit and cash, identify the main features of an income statement, and use simple income statements to make decisions based on profit calculations.
Specific Competence: Students will be able to identify the main components of a statement of financial position and use it to understand a business's financial health. Learning Activities: Students will learn about the main categories of assets (what a business owns, like buildings or cash) and liabilities (what a business owes, like loans or money to suppliers), using clear examples. They will practice reading a simple statement of financial position (a snapshot of a business's financial situation at a specific time) to understand how a business gets its money and what it owns, and how it might raise money, for instance, by selling inventory. Expected Standard: Students will be able to identify the main classifications of assets and liabilities, and interpret a simple statement of financial position to make deductions about a business's financing activities and assets.
Specific Competence: Students will be able to assess the financial performance of a business by understanding its profitability and liquidity, and by calculating and interpreting key financial ratios. Learning Activities: Students will learn what profitability (how much profit a business makes compared to its sales or investments) and liquidity (how easily a business can pay its short-term debts) mean and why they are important. They will learn to calculate and analyse important financial ratios (calculations using figures from accounts) like gross profit margin, profit margin, return on capital employed, current ratio, and acid test ratio. Students will also understand who uses these financial reports and ratio analysis, and how they use this information to make decisions, such as whether to lend money or invest in a business. Expected Standard: Students will be able to explain the concepts of profitability and liquidity, calculate and interpret key profitability and liquidity ratios, and explain why and how different users use accounts and ratio analysis to make informed decisions about a business.
Specific Competence: Understand how the economy changes over time and how these changes affect businesses. Learning Activities: Study the main stages of the business cycle (growth, boom, recession, slump). Learn how changes in job numbers, rising prices (inflation), and the total value of goods and services produced (Gross Domestic Product or GDP) affect businesses. Expected Standard: Students can explain the different stages of the business cycle and describe how changes in employment, inflation, and GDP influence business operations.
Specific Competence: Understand how government economic decisions influence businesses and how businesses react. Learning Activities: Identify what governments aim for economically, like growing the country's total output (GDP). Learn how changes in taxes, government spending, and borrowing costs (interest rates) affect businesses. Explore how businesses might adjust to these changes. Expected Standard: Students can identify government economic goals, explain the impact of government policies (taxes, spending, interest rates) on businesses, and suggest ways businesses might respond.
Specific Competence: Understand how businesses affect the environment and society, and how they deal with moral choices. Learning Activities: Explore how business operations can impact the environment, such as contributing to global warming. Learn about 'externalities' – the hidden costs or benefits of business decisions that affect others. Understand what sustainable development means and how businesses can help achieve it. Study why and how businesses respond to environmental concerns, including legal rules like pollution controls and pressure from groups. Examine ethical dilemmas businesses face, like balancing profit with doing what's right (e.g., avoiding child labor, paying fair prices to suppliers). Expected Standard: Students can explain the environmental and social impacts of business, define externalities and sustainable development, describe legal and social pressures on businesses regarding the environment, and discuss how businesses address ethical issues.
Specific Competence: Understand what globalisation means and how it affects businesses and governments. Learning Activities: Learn about globalisation – the growing connection of countries worldwide – and why it happens. Discover the good things and bad things globalisation brings for businesses. Understand why governments might put taxes (tariffs) or limits (quotas) on goods coming into the country. Expected Standard: Students can define globalisation, explain its causes, identify its opportunities and threats for businesses, and explain why governments use import tariffs and quotas.
Specific Competence: Understand why multinational companies are important, how they grow, and their effects on businesses and countries. Learning Activities: Explore the advantages for a business to operate in many countries (become a multinational) and how this affects its interested parties (stakeholders). Learn about the potential good things for a country when a multinational company sets up there, such as creating jobs, boosting exports, offering more product choices, and bringing in investments. Also, understand the possible downsides for a country, like local businesses selling less or the multinational sending its profits back to its home country. Expected Standard: Students can explain the benefits of becoming a multinational company, describe the advantages and disadvantages of MNCs for host countries, and discuss their impact on stakeholders.
Specific Competence: Understand how changes in currency value affect businesses that buy and sell goods internationally. Learning Activities: Learn what it means when a currency loses value (depreciation) or gains value (appreciation). Study how these changes in exchange rates affect businesses that import goods (buy from other countries) and export goods (sell to other countries), looking at effects on prices, how competitive they are, and how much profit they make. (Note: You won't need to do calculations.) Expected Standard: Students can define currency depreciation and appreciation, and explain how changes in exchange rates affect the prices, competitiveness, and profitability of businesses involved in international trade.
