This session was created in 2016 for a business studies GCSE group. It was designed to cover content for the CAIE IGCSE Business Studies (0450) syllabus, but is also relevant for all other IGCSE and GCSE business studies courses. There is also cross over with IGCSE/GCSE economics.

It starts by looking at what business is and what its purpose is. It then moves on to look at specialisation and the division of labour, from family level up to international level. Finally, it examines the idea of adding value to a product and this is illustrated through a couple of bottled water case studies. It has two hands-on activities, numerous other case studies and highlighted key words plus important definitions.

Some links are there to use during the actual session, others are just there to provide information to support the content for whoever is leading the session, but fit the session to the audience.

The group it was originally designed for was a smallish group of 10 or so, and it had a conversational format, with everyone sat around a large table. In order to keep the conversation flowing, the person leading the session will need to have read up on the case studies first so as to share the information with the students in a more palatable format (links in document).

This is a session that needs someone with a wee bit of business knowledge to lead it. Most adults who read a broadsheet newspaper regularly and have looked through one of the course books should be fine.

Ideally, the students should read the first section of the course book before the session in order to get the most out of it, but it is not a necessity.

Originally for a 1.5hour session, but it is much longer as I like flexibility on the day to ditch some sections and focus more heavily on others, depending on how the students are responding. I also have a massive fear of not having enough content for a session and everyone sat there twiddling their thumbs, so there is probably enough here for two 1.5hr sessions. I guess it depends on how quickly you talk…