Hello and welcome to Reigate College’s Business Department.
My name is Nicola Thompson and I’m Head of BTEC Business. I’m really pleased you’ve chosen to study Business at Reigate College and my colleagues and I are looking forward to meeting you when you join our thriving department at the beginning of the academic year.
To prepare you for the course, we’d like you to complete a series of tasks and activities over the coming months. They should all be completed independently from home and then we’ll share together what you’ve learnt when you start the course in September. It would also be really helpful if you could keep a close eye on the news – particularly stories relating to the world of business.
The tasks are organised in three distinct steps and should all be completed by Choices Day on 27 August 2025. This is to give you the best insight into what the courses will be like and/or help prepare you for them.
Please note, some Course Leaders (for example for Music) may release their tasks earlier, as they may form part of the College’s audition process. If this applies to you, you’ll be notified separately.
New Starters Course Tasks and Activities
| Release date | Suggested Completion Dates | |
| Explore your Subject | 1 June | 1 July |
| Get Going | 1 June | 1 August |
| Aim High | 1 June | 1 September |
Business is all around us and covers a wide variety of topics.
1. Keep up-to-date with current issues affecting Businesses.
Read the Business sections of one of the respected broadsheets. For example:
- The Guardian www.guardian.co.uk
- The Telegraph www.telegraph.co.uk
- The Independent www.independent.co.uk
- The Times www.thetimes.co.uk
- The Financial Times www.ft.com
2. Consider what the major factors are, that affect Businesses, both nationally and internationally.
Some of the themes you might consider include:
- Covid-19 – the short and long term impact of the pandemic
- Brexit – the impact on the UK Economy and the UK’s position in the world
- Globalisation and its impact on developed and developing countries
- Impact of HS2 – its positive and negative impact
3. Take a look at and bookmark the following websites:
www.bbc.co.uk/news/business – Excellent for current affairs
www.tutor2u.net/business – Good for links to Business theory
4. Listen to the following Radio Programmes:
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p016tl04 Business Matters
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0070lr5 Wake up to Money
www.bbc.co.uk/search?q=Business+Daily Business Daily
5. Watch the following YouTube Videos:
6. Listen to the ‘Business as Usual’ Podcast:
This is good for thinking about current issues, and is also good for revision.
7. Look at the A Level and BTEC Business course specifications:
This will help you make a decision between studying A Level and BTEC Business, if you’re still undecided.
qualifications.pearson.com/en/qualifications/edexcel-a-levels/business-2015.html – A Level Business
qualifications.pearson.com/en/qualifications/btec-nationals/business-2016.html – BTEC L3 Business (RQF)
8. Read some Business related books:
For example, you could read “Business Adventures” by John Brooks
9. Watch Business-related films:
For example, The Big Short – Examines the 2008 Credit Crunch and explains why it happened and whether the banks have learnt any lessons.
Business Research Skills
Exploring a range of sources and selecting information that is both valid and reliable to support your argument is a key skill, needed in Business. For both the A Level and BTEC Business courses contextualisation is really important – in other words, you need to be constantly on the look-out for real-life, practical examples, that you could use as case studies or make reference to.
Reliable sources can be found across a variety of mediums.
You should record your findings either via a Word or PowerPoint document. If you don’t have access to a computer, then please just record them with a pen and paper.
Task
Cadbury regularly produces promotional campaigns for different markets and different target customers. Cadbury’s marketing team is very good at ‘hiding’ messages within their adverts. For each of the four links below, please answer the following questions:
- What do you think the main message is?
- What do you think is good about the promotional campaign?
- What do you think could be done to improve it?
Cadbury Dairy Milk – Aliens
Cadbury Dairy Milk | Fence 30″
Cadbury – This doesn’t need to end
Cadbury Dairy Milk | ‘Donate your words’ | Manchester United
Using newspapers for research
Building on the research activities completed in the earlier tasks, the next focus is to learn how to use newspaper articles as a research source. A large number of stories are printed on a daily basis; some are new and some focus on a recurring topic.
The purpose of research is to identify the key points in stories and then begin to assess the impact they have on different individuals and businesses. To be successful on the BTEC Level 3 Business course, you need to be able to then take this information and analyse the response made by businesses in different situations. Often there will be different approaches made by businesses, with different levels of success.
TASK 1: Select one of the newspapers listed in the ‘Explore your Subject’ section, access their Business news each day for a week, and choose one of the articles.
The following newspaper websites are all recommended:
• The Guardian www.guardian.co.uk
• The Telegraph www.telegraph.co.uk
• The Independent www.independent.co.uk
Each day for seven days, produce a journal recording the stories, listing:
- The date
- The title of the article
- The main issues highlighted in the article
- Any positive and/or negative impact on businesses
- Any details on the likely response
At the end of the week, review the various issues and approaches made by the businesses mentioned. What similarities can you identify?
TASK 2: You should try to get into the habit of checking the Business sections of newspapers on a regular basis. Please aim to do this at least once a week over the summer. Try reading the same story on different newspapers websites and identify any differences in how it’s reported.
Head of BTEC Business
