Do you have a
head for business?

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Johnny and Josh's stories

Johnny McArthur, Josh Higgs and their tutor Nicola Anderson, talking business at Kirk Balk School, Barnsley.

Johnny
I'm Johnny and I'm a 16-year-old and I'm doing an OCR National Diploma in business, which is Level 3. I wanted to do the course because it opens up a wide variety of jobs in business and accounting.Josh
I'm Josh Higgs, I'm 16 years old and I'm doing OCR National Diploma in Business. At the end of the two-year course it's equivalent to two A levels.Tutor
It's pure coursework with 12 units that they have to cover and they do it here at Kirk Balk and at Dearne Valley College and at the end of the two years they get a wide range of skills. So we look at key skills, we look at drug awareness, we look at first aid, health and safety, so they get a nice plethora of qualifications as well as an AS in financial studies.Josh
It's fun you get to go on a lot of trips. You get to meet loads of people from college because there are two groups in ours. It's quite hard work but once you've done it you feel good with yourself. Tutor
It's much more vocational than let's just talk about what businesses do. They actually go and see what the businesses do, and the businesses come to them to show them how to do the skills. Johnny
We do all aspects of business like marketing and ownership of businesses. You can either do it for a year and go into employment, but I'll probably stay on for two years and go to university and study more.Tutor
The students increase their skills in ICT because they will be using different forms of presentation skills throughout, so they are also increasing their communication skills. They have to do key skills and problem solving, so they learn how to work with others. We are trying to make them more employable and more user-friendly for universities as well.Josh
The charity event we're doing for the Poppy Appeal, has different groups. It's got marketing, some art people for designs, and then we've got people going around with the bucket to raise money. We all work together as a team. Tutor
They do work really well as a team and they are producing a high level amount of work. Some of them haven't done business studies before so it is a steep learning curve, but again because they are a fairly small group you get the interactivity between them. It's working very well and we're really pleased with the way the kids are performing.Josh
When I was a school and I knew I had to get up and everything, now it's more like working away and it doesn't really bother me about getting up because I enjoy it; it's something fun.Tutor
Because there is no exam they have to remain focused, because they have to do big assignments and it's marked in pass, merit or distinction. So they need to make sure that they are constantly focused and they're working, and it's independent. They need to be able to be trusting to work independently.Josh
We're meeting new people and that's good. I've met quite a few people now - everybody that's in the course - they're all good mates of mine, and the teachers are brilliant. All the other staff at Kirk Balk are nice with us. Johnny
We have a laugh and we're not stressed over work it's more relaxed and calm. It's better that way because we haven't got pressured into doing it - it's out own choice, so it's something we're enjoying doing.

Josh
I'm Josh Higgs, I'm 16 years old and I'm doing OCR National Diploma in Business. At the end of the two-year course it's equivalent to two A levels.

Tutor
It's pure coursework with 12 units that they have to cover and they do it here at Kirk Balk and at Dearne Valley College and at the end of the two years they get a wide range of skills. So we look at key skills, we look at drug awareness, we look at first aid, health and safety, so they get a nice plethora of qualifications as well as an AS in financial studies.

Josh
It's fun you get to go on a lot of trips. You get to meet loads of people from college because there are two groups in ours. It's quite hard work but once you've done it you feel good with yourself.

Tutor
It's much more vocational than let's just talk about what businesses do. They actually go and see what the businesses do, and the businesses come to them to show them how to do the skills.

Johnny
We do all aspects of business like marketing and ownership of businesses. You can either do it for a year and go into employment, but I'll probably stay on for two years and go to university and study more.

Tutor
The students increase their skills in ICT because they will be using different forms of presentation skills throughout, so they are also increasing their communication skills. They have to do key skills and problem solving, so they learn how to work with others. We are trying to make them more employable and more user-friendly for universities as well.

Josh
The charity event we're doing for the Poppy Appeal, has different groups. It's got marketing, some art people for designs, and then we've got people going around with the bucket to raise money.

We all work together as a team.

Tutor
They do work really well as a team and they are producing a high level amount of work. Some of them haven't done business studies before so it is a steep learning curve, but again because they are a fairly small group you get the interactivity between them. It's working very well and we're really pleased with the way the kids are performing.

Josh
When I was a school and I knew I had to get up and everything, now it's more like working away and it doesn't really bother me about getting up because I enjoy it; it's something fun.

Tutor
Because there is no exam they have to remain focused, because they have to do big assignments and it's marked in pass, merit or distinction. So they need to make sure that they are constantly focused and they're working, and it's independent. They need to be able to be trusting to work independently.

Josh
We're meeting new people and that's good. I've met quite a few people now - everybody that's in the course - they're all good mates of mine, and the teachers are brilliant. All the other staff at Kirk Balk are nice with us.

Johnny
We have a laugh and we're not stressed over work it's more relaxed and calm. It's better that way because we haven't got pressured into doing it - it's out own choice, so it's something we're enjoying doing.