Cambridge Technical in Business
Overview
The OCR Level 3 Cambridge Technical Diploma in Business is a good alternative to studying the IBDP or A levels for pupils who want a career in business or want to study it at university.
This qualification is equivalent to 2 A levels and carries UCAS points. There is one pathway to access the OCR level 3 Cambridge Technical Diploma in Business, alongside one A level subject chosen from the wide offering available at Stonyhurst.
Course Content
This vocational qualification covers a wide range of business topics and at Stonyhurst we follow the Marketing pathway. 10 units are completed over the 2-year course with 4 units being assessed externally through exams that are sat throughout the programme. This is a huge benefit for pupils as material is assessed soon after it is learned, rather than the entire course content being assessed at the end as is the case with A levels and IB subjects.
Unit 1 covers The Business Environment with the exam for this being sat in January of Poetry year. Unit 2 (Working in Business) and unit 3 (Business Decisions) are sat in the summer of Poetry leaving just one formal exam for Rhetoric year that takes place in January (unit 15 Change Management). Another benefit of the Cambridge Technical is that exams can be resat each exam series if pupils feel a second attempt would be advantageous.
The remaining 6 units are all internally assessed by teachers and then externally moderated by OCR. We cover topics such as marketing and market research, communication, project management and then pupils work towards delivering their own project for the final unit. Pupils are taught the content required for each unit and then complete the coursework, following the unit specification, to meet the criteria for each element. There are 3 levels to each unit: pass, merit and distinction.
Pupils who follow this course become independent learners as they have to manage their own workload and meet ongoing deadlines which makes it a great foundation for either a university degree, apprenticeship or entering the world of work.
