Business studies at GCSE, worth doing or choose something more academic?

[NotMostPeople]

DD1 only gets two options, she knows she wants to do art, but isn't sure if she wants to do business studies or RS for the other. My initial reaction was to choose RS as it's more academic, but rather than dismissing it out of hand I thought perhaps I ought to do some research. Back in my day business studies was mostly about learning how to use carbon paper, so not really worth anything.

I think its come on a bit :) but put it this way, my kids school is very up on what GCSEs universities like and they dont offer business studies but do offer RS if that helps!

Agree with miggy. RS good preparation for Philosophy A level and shows unis that they have had a chance to study other ways of thinking, ethics, and see both sides of an argument. Best preparation for business is actually managing things, you can't get a GCSE in common sense. The sort of Business Studies you benefit from studying comes at, at least, undergraduate level, if not postgraduate. And studying other subjects will almost certainly more effectively open the doors at both advanced levels.

You say your DD only gets two options. If the 'givens' are mainstream academic then my advice would be for your DD to do what she wants to do. In a practical sense neither RS or BS are going to be particularly useful if she is already doing History/Geography as one of her 'givens'.

I have no experience of Business Studies as neither of mine took it (their school did tend to encourage the more academic children into other subjects, rightly or wrongly) but DD took RS and it is fantastically interesting. It's not the traditional stuff I did at school but really thought-provoking. It was so interesting I loved quizzing her on it and helping her revise!

Business studies would be helpful if she wanted to do economics though.

Let her do whichever she wants. In my experience many pupils dislike RS and although they often find BS fairly dull they tend to get 'A's in it fairly easily. (Sits back and holds breath, waiting for lots of BS teachers to tell me indignantly how difficult it is as a subject)...

As an aside, Unis aren't generally very interested in what GCSEs candidates have, providing they have good grades and a reasonable breadth of subject. They only really look at A level results.

If she wants to do Economics later she wouldn't need Business Studies, they are very different. A-level Economics assumes no prior knowledge as does degree level.

Virgil Although there is some overlap between Business Studies and Economics it is apparently not much and it gives no advantage at all in uni applications. In fact, because not all schools offer Economics A level, even that is not essential for an undergraduate degree. One of mine studied Economics at uni and went into what was and was not an advantage so, unless it has changed since then, I don't think it would really help.

Sorry I didn't mean helpful in terms of uni applications just helpful in that there is overlap with a level economics.

I've had a chat with her and she says that she really enjoys RS and was only considering Business studies because she thought it might be useful. Her school is very academic and don't offer many light subjects which is why I thought there might more to business studies then back in my day. She'll be doing the E Bac as well as the two options subjects. I think RS is the way to go.

My understanding is that they have to study some RE anyway, so, I've heard quite a few pupils say they might as well take the GCSE.
I've also been surprised how interesting so many youngsters find RE / RS. The whole philosophy and ethics stuff is not only interesting, but considered quite a rigorous and useful subject in lots of fields.... learning how to put your point across, persuade people, as well as considering things like medical ethics.

Business teacher here so here is the flaming ....

There is a huge preconception that business is a soft subject mainly mn however if you actually look at the spec there is a lot more to it than meets the eye.

The subject content has a huge range from ownership types, legal, finance, HR, motivation, basic economics, marketing amongst other things which gives students a insight into the world of work and a taste of the different aspects to a business which every working adult will face at some point in their careers.

The skills needed to achieve a high grade are on a par with the traditional academic subjects, for example there is a lot of analysis and evaluation skills needed; especially in the controlled assessment.

Business Studies enables students to understand the real world that is happening now; gives them an insight into what they will be facing (no matter what career path they follow) in the future; gives them a taste of several different aspects to a business and is one of the most popular subjects studied at degree level in either its pure business form or as an specialised aspect.

But my main defence of my subject is that this is basic common education that every young adult needs to make sense of the world we live in, to make sense of the decision that are made at work, to try and make sense of the decisions made by governments, to understand the implications of these decisions etc - in fact it should be compulsory

apologies for any rambling or incoherent sentences but been at pc working all night and can't get sleep

That gives me some comfort that one of my triplets wants to do business studies.

Your DD might take to BS and want to study it at A or degree level. A large number of universities offer Business Studies or Business Management e.g. Edinburgh, Leeds, Liverpool, Sussex, Kent, Cardiff, Exeter, York, Aberdeen etc

DD2 took BS at GCSE and A Level and also took RS at A level. She is now studying an academic subject at one of the above.

RS every time.

And you don't need it at GCSE or A Level to study it at Uni. Rather like Law, many Universities actively prefer you not to have studied it at a lower level.

Scrap that . You don't need an A Level in it to do a degree in it but it isn't one they actively dislike and you don't need a GCSE in it either - just a B or better in maths at many Universities.

This gives a lot of suggestions.

You don't need a CGSE or an A level in BS to study business or management or economics or accounting or any allied subject at any university. You also don't need BS GCSE or A level to become any sort of accountant. Which says it all really. It's a completely useless subject. Sorry.

ds did a btec (horror) in business which enabled him to get into university to study business. it is a subject he absolutely loves though and wants to study and more importantly enjoys. hate they way business is shunned on mn.

Of course you don't need BS for uni, just like a lot of other subjects, but read my post about the content and the skills and knowledge it gives students - education is not just about RG unis

Or, read my post about the fact that it is not regarded as a real subject by accountancy firms. And draw your own conclusions.

Oh, and just to add to the mix, some universities do look at GCSE results ...

I'm sorry, it isn't just on MN, it is also in the business world. A few graduate programmes now favour Business Studies degrees but most, and the best still want solid academic degrees from solid academic unis to demonstrate that you have developed your intellectual capabilities in studying challenging intellectual subjects, as well as of course having the personal qualities www.unilever.co.uk/careers/careeropportunities/graduatesandstudents/graduateprogamme/index.aspx. Once you are in a business and learning management skills then you will gain so much more from studying business skills through a postgraduate qualification.