There is a clear progression to vocational qualifications which boosts numbers entering the school sixth- form. GNVQ intermediate provides a stepping stone. Schools that are well-equipped with ICT are at an advantage. Epsom and Ewell High has a dedicated, small business classroom of 10 internet computers set up with help from a local sponsor. The school shares the facility with local small businesses which can come in and use the room out of school hours or when there are no business lessons timetabled. There is, too, a dedicated business studies classroom with 25 workstations.
ICT is also key to making business studies interesting and accessible. St Francis Xavier College in Liverpool, an 11-18 boys comprehensive with a co-ed sixth form, wants to go for specialist college status in business.
The school has seen business studies grow from one subject co-ordinator to a department of three and a rise in student numbers along with its investment in ICT. Headmaster Brother Francis says: "We have just over 100 sixth-formers doing AS, A2 and advanced GNVQ in business studies - that's around half of the sixth form.
"Students have a special ICT commonroom and classrooms equipped with IBM computers. All coursework is word-processed and we have strong training links with Ford and Jaguar. Business studies is an ideal combination with ICT, maths, psychology or foreign languages."
South Dartmoor Community College offers a range of post-16 business courses and has developed a special web site for the 80 students who study the subject in the college's sixth-form block.
"We can have 30 students at a time editing our site," says head of business Samantha Memory. "They publish pages on economic problems and business case studies. I take quite a few of my lessons in the IT suite. ICT is a very good motivator particularly with the lower ability vocational groups."
Students see the links with business as providing a route to employment. So do employers, many of whom are keen to sponsor business studies through online resources and CD-roms. Enterprise Insight, a new joint venture by the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), the Institute of Directors and the local Chambers of Commerce network, has just secured £50,000 in funding from the Treasury to bring schools and businesses closer together. "Artists, sportsmen, tradesmen, it doesn't matter what you study at school or college - everyone needs to learn about business," says Oonagh Harpur, EI's chief executive. "ICT is a big part of making that exciting."
Support for teachers of economics and business studies comes from two organisations which share a website. Biz/ed, part of Bristol University's Institute for Learning and Research, hosts pages on its site for EBEA, the economics and business education research organisation. Both groups help specialist teachers network and share best practice besides providing a new series of interactive online business simulations, the Virtual Learning Arcade.
Biz/ed plans shortly to launch online business courses through a virtual learning environment that will be installed on its server and sell schools space on it. Schools will be able to customise the case studies, exercises and questions to suit pupils' needs."It's an online textbook which schools can edit," says Beharrel. "It's an always-on web-based service and effectively we'd be licensing it to them." Meanwhile, support from business itself has been flagging. Fewer companies are producing high quality online support materials for business education. Nancy Wall, co-ordinator of the Nuffield economics and business project, says there are almost no online teaching materials or business websites suitable for the pre-16 age group.
"There are fewer simulations now as the cost of producing them is so high. It's a serious cause for concern."
wound up after a year its assets - after running costs have been deducted - will be distributed between the shareholders, and local charities.
According to the pupil's link teacher Marianne Gifford the experience is having a big knock on effect in other subjects. She says: "It's a huge benefit to young people ; it's developing team skills, communication skills and confidence. They're getting quite a lot of help from their business mentor Kevin McCarthy, the general manager of the Castle Hotel."
It is ironic that most participants in Young Enterprise projects are not able to combine their hands-on experience with classroom study. Oonagh Harpur of Enterprise Insight says: "Most people do Young Enterprise aged 14. Post 16, there is too much going on in college there's no time for extra curricular activities." However there is a strong correlation between business links, involvement in enterprise schemes, and use of ICT which help inform subject choices higher up the educational ladder. The young directors of Phoenix Design will probably move on to business studies when it is available in the sixth form and from there to higher education or employment.
Getting down to business
Which subject offers you nearly an 80% chance of finding a job within six months of graduating? Simon Midgley reports
Monday August 19, 2002
Business studies graduates often have an edge over humanities graduates when it comes to getting a job. "They are probably ahead of the game," says Carl Gilleard, chief executive of the Association of Graduate Recruiters (AGR). "Business studies graduates are seen as having good employment prospects.
"They have generally done quite rounded degrees and they will have picked up a lot of skills, as well as knowledge that can be applied in the workplace. They are going on to a wide range of jobs both in the private and public sector."
A survey of 10,500 men and women with business studies degrees in 1999 showed that 78% got jobs within six months of graduating. Of these 13% were in marketing, sales and PR; 23% in the commercial, industrial and public sector; 7.5% in business and finance; almost 5% in IT; and 18.5% in clerical and secretarial.
These statistics, drawn from What Do Graduates Do? 2001 (published by the Central Services Unit), are quite positive compared with those of some other degree disciplines, says Gilleard. "Employment rates are high. Often their degrees have fairly obvious relevance to the careers they choose to follow."
Business studies graduates are sought after by employers. The kind of person who enrols on business studies courses quite often knows what they want from a course and has career goals in mind. While getting a degree is important, it is as important to develop skills, get some work experience and be able to demonstrate personal qualities such as leadership and taking responsibility.
"I don't see employers seeing a theology degree and saying 'oh, bin this one', but they might say 'what does this person think they can bring to our organisation?' and they would be looking in the application, the interview or the assessment centre for evidence of that," Gilleard says.
"You can develop skills in almost any experience. Something as mundane as working in the students' union bar will help you to develop skills in how to deal with customers. When the bar shutters come down, you need some very good skills, diplomacy and tact in handling people who are desperate to get another pint in before the bar shuts."
While business studies students may be frequently sought after, humanities graduates should take heart. David Houlcroft, undergraduate admissions tutor in the department of commerce in Birmingham University's business school, says historians and English graduates have good research, investigative and communication skills, all of which are attractive to employers.
They might not be so technically competent as business studies graduates, but in areas such as marketing, personnel management and retail buying, provided they can surmount the hurdle of the first interview, they could be strong candidates.
Houlcroft's school offers what is almost certainly the oldest business degree in the western hemisphere, the bachelor of commerce degree, 100 years old this year. Business studies degrees come with many different labels - management studies, business administration - but the title "commerce" is fairly rare. Whatever name the course has, it is an umbrella term for disciplines related to business: for example, accounting, finance, law, marketing and economics.
Birmingham offers the bachelor of commerce, a generalist, broadly-based, three-year business degree. It also offers a bachelor of commerce with language, which involves a year's study abroad, and a joint honours language with business course in which students can spend half their time studying business and the other half studying language and literature.
The business school also contributes to other degree programmes in law, engineering and sciences. Up to 120 students are admitted to the bachelor of commerce programme each year. Entry grades of BBB or more at A-level and a B at mathematics at GCSE are required.
Although the department has never formally gone into clearing, it has sometimes taken students who have approached it through the clearing process.
"The degree seems to be quite well thought of by all the major employers," says Houl croft. "Our students are well placed to go down a diverse number of avenues and are not locked into any particular area of business management.
"We are not trying to train students to do a specific function in business. We are interested in preparing students for as diverse a range of careers as possible."
The City University business school, which was rated number one last year for teaching quality by the Guardian, offers a BSc in business studies on which students can specialise in either marketing or finance; a BSc in management and systems, a general management degree; a BSc in banking and international finance, and a BSc in investment, finance and risk.
Although not the biggest undergraduate programme, it is highly sought after. Up to 10 people apply for each place. Entry grades required at A-level are ABB and maths GCSE at grade B. Some 300 new students are admitted each year. It is a three-year degree, although students can opt to take a year out on work placement.
Some students also have the opportunity to study abroad in their second year at one of City's exchange institutions: Emory University in Atlanta, the University of Illinois, City University Hong Kong, University College Dublin and the National University of Singapore. Competition for these places is stiff - there are five applicants for each exchange.
In the past the school has occasionally taken one or two students during the clearing process.
Chris Jeffery, undergraduate admissions tutor, says: "Our employment rate, including those going on to postgraduate studies, is 96%. We do have a very good employment record. This is partly because of our location.
"Also, academically our students are very strong. Their education is practical and theoretical. It's more about learning rather than being taught. We don't like having our students sit in front of a lecturer for three years."
Warwick business school, one of the top three research business schools in the UK, offers BScs in management science, international business, accountancy and finance and joint honours programmes with law, engineering, German and physics.
The BSc in management science has a core first year consisting of finance, computing, economics and the foundation of organisations. In the second and third years there are a host of options to choose from. Students can specialise in marketing, human resources or public relations, for example, or can keep their options open by taking a wide range of courses including operations, information systems, finance, human resources and languages.
The entry qualifications are AAB at A-level or 36 points from the International Baccalaureate. Candidates must have GCSE mathematics at grade A. For the accountancy and finance BSc candidates must have mathematics A-level at grade A or B. For the international business degree you must have French, German, Spanish or Italian at A-level. There are eight candidates for every place. Over the next 10 years it is intended that the number of undergraduate students entering the programme will grow from 250 to 450-500.
"We are a research-based university," Dr Simon Croom, admissions tutor for the BSc in management science, says. "We are here not to train stu dents but to educate them. We would like to think we play a major part in stimulating students' thirst for knowledge."
International business studies degree students can go abroad for a year to work. Many students go on company internships during the summer holidays; others take part in student exchange programmes. All students have a chance to take a year out if they wish.
The majority of Warwick's students go into accountancy, finance and financial services, which reflects the strength of the school's programme areas. Quite a few graduates go into consultancy, management development programmes and higher education.
The University of Glamorgan offers a BA honours degree in business studies. After a common first year, students can opt either to specialise or to continue with a broad-based degree. The degree can be three or four years long if a year is spent in industry. Students can also opt to do an exchange year with one of six American universities or an English-speaking business school in Europe.
Gwyn Smith, admissions tutor for the programme, says this gives students the chance to be independent and work in different cultures. City students studying at the University of Vaxjo in Sweden can also sit for a Swedish degree as well as City's degree.
Entry grades for the course are three Ds at A-level and the school does draw students from the clearing process.
The department takes 240 students each year and is probably the university's single biggest subject area. Its size enables it to offer a variety of specialist options including purchasing and supply chain management, enterprise and small business, and business information management, which teaches would-be managers how to articulate their IT needs to computer programmers and IT professionals.
Serious money
We must give business studies more status, says Jenny Wales
Tuesday March 6, 2001
Will the UK ever return to its entrepreneurial heyday? We once led the world in innovation and trade but now lag behind badly in the business start-up stakes. Governments constantly plead for people to set up in business but what has been done to develop the nation's enterprise instincts? The simple answer is - very little.
Some inroads are being made, but slowly. There is, at last, some recognition that business as a subject exists but activity is generally aimed at schools rather than colleges. Here it does not receive, however, the same status as geography and history even though, for 14- to 16-year-olds, busi ness studies has an equal place in the curriculum.
What makes it stranger is that Tony Blair has been talking about business studies in recent weeks. His statements about education included plans to set up specialist schools for business and enterprise. In further education there has been no such progress. A student of A-level psychology brings more money to a college than one taking business studies. Does the former really cost more than the latter? Most lecturers would doubt it.
Business is the biggest area for GNVQ and vocational A-levels. It has provided a successful route to higher education and employment for many students. Turning GNVQ Foundation and Intermediate into a vocational GCSE leaves many students with no route forward from school. Half the population achieves less than C grades at GCSE and they really don't want to go to college to resit.
Young people want something new. If they have achieved a foundation pass at school, they could move to intermediate at college. Will these students really want to start a GCSE, with its school-based image, which they will "fail", as a C grade is probably beyond their expectations? Foundation GNVQ motivated many because they could receive a positive outcome. Why take it away?
There is a shortage of business teachers. Adverts for business lecturers elicit few responses in the college sector. Graduates see enthusiastic employers who offer tempting packages in return for their skills. Maths teachers, among others, will get their student loans paid off and be given golden hellos but business teachers are never included in these deals.
Business students and lecturers in colleges do not get a fair crack of the whip. There is a mismatch between the perception that business education is economically important and the reality of the lack of support for it. We must all shout louder.
