Skills you learn from Business (Year 11)

Business builds a mix of commercial and analytical skills - making decisions under uncertainty, working with numbers, spotting opportunities, persuading and listening, and understanding how organisations really work. This lesson plan will help you to show Year 11 students the skills Business builds and which other subjects build the same ones.

This lesson is designed to be delivered in 30 minutes as a teacher-led classroom activity.

This activity supports the following frameworks:

  • Gatsby Benchmark 4

This activity is suitable for Year 11 and features careers linked to the following subjects:

  • Business

This is one of three lesson plans for teachers working with Year 11 students considering A-Level Business - whether they currently study GCSE Business or not:

These lesson plans will help you show students how Business connects to their future careers.

We recommend using this lesson plan at the end of the autumn term. By this point Year 11 students are beginning to weigh post-16 options. Recognising the skills Business builds - and seeing where the same skills are developed in other subjects - helps them choose a complementary set of A-Levels, T-Levels, or training routes, whether or not they currently take GCSE Business.

Learning objectives

  • Students will name specific skills Business builds, with examples.
  • Students will recognise other subjects that build the same skills.
  • Students will consider how that shapes their post-16 choices.

Before the lesson

  • You will need a computer connected to the internet and a classroom screen.
  • Open the What can you do with Business? page and have it ready on the screen.
  • Review the Skills that Business builds section and think of examples for each one - drawn from GCSE Business if you teach it, or from enterprise activities, careers lessons, and familiar businesses if you don't.

During the lesson

1. What does Business cover? (5 mins)

  • Ask students to call out what they know about how businesses work - from GCSE Business if they take it, from enterprise weeks, from family or part-time jobs, or from being customers.
  • Write the suggestions on the board and highlight any patterns.

2. Skills that Business builds (15 mins)

  • Bring up the What can you do with Business? page on the classroom screen.
  • Review the contents of the page with students so that they understand what it covers.
  • Scroll to the Skills that Business builds section and work through each skill in turn.
    • Ask students which topic, case study, or real-world example from the board involves that skill.
    • Share your own teaching examples if students are stuck.

3. The same skills in other subjects (10 mins)

  • Ask students to think about where else they've built these same skills.
    • Which subjects ask you to make a judgement when the evidence is incomplete?
    • Which subjects involve working with numbers - percentages, ratios, financial data?
    • Which subjects ask you to persuade, pitch, or argue a case?
  • Go round the class, asking each student to name one skill and one other subject they've built it in.
  • Close by reminding students that choosing a good set of post-16 subjects isn't just about which ones they enjoy - it's about which ones compound the skills they want to take into work or further study.

After the lesson

  • Share the What can you do with Business? page with students and their parents/carers:
    • www.coffeewith.xyz/subjects/what-can-you-do-with-business
  • Encourage parents/carers to explore the page with their child and to discuss the contents.
  • Use the School Tools / Activities feature to record the lesson activity:
    • Activity name: Year 11 - Skills you learn from Business
    • Activity type: Linking curriculum learning to careers
  • Read the follow-on lesson plan: