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Cambridge Technical Extended Certificate in Business

Course Content

The aim of the course is to enable students the opportunity to develop the core specialist knowledge, skills and understanding required in the business sector.

Everybody will study the following mandatory units:

• The business environment
• Working in business
• Customers and communication

The business environment will give learners an understanding of the wider external contexts in which businesses operate and of internal business functions and their interdependencies. The unit will allow them to appreciate how legal, financial, ethical and resource constraints can affect business behaviour and the influence that different stakeholders can have and how businesses must respond.

Working in business will give them an understanding of the type of critical skills needed when working in business, such as organisation, prioritisation and effective communication. The unit will allow them to learn how to use different business documents and about organisational protocols that most businesses would expect employees to follow.

Customers and communication will allow learners to appreciate how vital customers are to the success of a business. It will give them an understanding of how important it is for businesses to know their customers and what influences customer behaviour. In this unit, they will understand how to communicate with customers.

The optional units cover a wide range of topics to give them the opportunity to take a unit that is relevant to a specific aspect of business; for example marketing, accounting, human resources or business planning.
Skills / Aptitudes required to be successful in this course:

Good written ability and a commitment to reading challenging but stimulating business and financial material would ensure good progress. The independent learner would excel in this course as there is a wealth of real life scenarios all around us in the business world.

How will I be assessed?

There are 5 units over two years (3 mandatory and 2 optional)

• 2 mandatory units are assessed in the form of a written paper. This makes up 50% of the total mark.
• 3 units are centre-assessed in the form of coursework and are moderated by a visiting moderator from OCR. These units make up 50% of the total mark.

This qualification is graded: Pass, Merit, Distinction, Distinction*.

Complementary subjects:

L3 ICT, L3 Travel and Tourism and a language would also compliment this course as business is done in many languages throughout the world.

What have students who have taken this course in the past progressed to?

As an applied course L3 Business would be suitable to any student who is hoping to pursue the practical aspects of running a business or progressing to management in an established business. Qualifications have UCAS points supporting progression to Higher Education (university).