Skills you learn from Business (Year 9)

This is one of three lesson plans for teachers introducing Business to Year 9 students - whether through standalone Business lessons, enterprise activities, or careers programmes:

• Jobs that use Business (Year 9)
• Skills you learn from Business (Year 9)
• Why study GCSE Business? (Year 9)

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 students will have had some exposure to business ideas through enterprise activities, careers lessons, or their own experience as customers and members of working families. Recognising the skills Business builds helps students see it as more than just another GCSE option, and sets them up for choices in the spring.

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Learning objectives

• Students will understand that Business builds a broad range of transferable skills.
• Students will be able to name 2-3 skills they're already starting to build and give examples.

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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 real-world examples for each one - drawn from enterprise weeks, school trips, careers activities, or familiar local businesses.

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During the lesson

1. What businesses do you know? (5 mins)

• Ask students to call out businesses they interact with - shops, cafes, online services, sports clubs, local employers, family-run companies.
• Write the suggestions on the board and highlight any patterns: who their customers are, how they make money, what could go wrong for them.

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 how that skill might apply to one of the businesses on the board.
  • Share your own examples if students are stuck - from enterprise activities, careers lessons, or familiar local businesses.

3. Making it personal (10 mins)

• Ask students to pick 2-3 skills from the list they feel they're already starting to build - in school, at home, or in activities outside school.
• Go round the class, asking each student to name one skill and give an example of when they used it.
• Close by reminding students that these are valuable skills for work and life, not just for exams - and that Business at GCSE is one way to develop them deliberately.

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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 09 - Skills you learn from Business
  • Activity type: Linking curriculum learning to careers
• Read the follow-on lesson plan:
  • Why study GCSE Business? (Year 9)