Specifications
Business Environment
Candidates should be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of:
- aims and objectives in business; the criteria for judging success, eg profitability; wealth creation, job creation, market share, cash flow, considered from the viewpoint of all shareholders, but with particular emphasis on staff;
- the way in which and the degree to which the wishes and interests of various stakeholders impose constraints on a business, eg the need for profitability, customer satisfaction, government legislation, employee organisations;
- the way businesses are organised to meet their objectives, eg the roles of managers in businesses.
These topics serve to provide a context for the use of information and communication systems, and the criteria by which to evaluate their use.
Communication
Candidates should be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of how effective communication can help business. In order to do this students should look at:
- the benefits of effective internal and external communication;
- the effects of poor internal and external communication;
- the difference between formal and informal communication;
- verbal communication in the form of face to face meetings, telephone, video conferencing, voicemail;
- written communication in the form of business letters, memos, agenda, minutes, reports, notices, newsletters;
- electronic communication systems such as mobile phones, fax, pagers, information services;
- the role of the internet and its impact on the business world with its facilities for communication, marketing and selling (email, web sites, catalogues, booking services).
- the impact of the growth of e-commerce on businesses and their customers.
Composition
Candidates should be able to:
- prepare and write a response to given source material;
- compose responses in various forms. e.g letter, memo, notice, advertisement or note;
- use information from more than one source within the question paper;
- take account of the purpose and target audience of the document.
Databases
Candidates should be able to:
- design and create an appropriate data capture sheet for use with a database;
- design and create a database with appropriate fields and records to meet a specified need;
- identify appropriate data types e.g. alphabetic, numeric, alphanumeric;
- add and edit fields, e.g. headings, widths and data types;
- insert, edit and delete records;
- search, sort and select records based on specified criteria to meet a given need;
- modify layouts for specific purposes, e.g. list, form, mailing labels.
Graphics & Clipart
Candidates should be able to:
- create simple freehand shapes and/or draw geometrical shapes for a given need;
- make effective use of shading and patterns;
- make effective use of a range of line styles, eg broken;
- combine text and graphics, where appropriate;
- edit graphics, using cut, copy, paste facilities, align shapes and text appropriately;
- re-size and move graphics and/or clipart.
Human Resources
Candidates should be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of:
- the methods by which staff are recruited, both internally and externally;
- the methods used to select candidatesby evaluating application forms etc;
- how to prepare the interview; choose the setting, identify the questions to be asked;
- contracts of employment; job desriptions/personspecification;
- the types of training that may be offered to employees;
- the different forms of renumeration that can be offered;
- the rights and responsibilities as outlined in legislation for equal pay, sex discrimination, race relations and disability discrimination, plus the significance of European legislation;
- the different ways in which employment might end: retirement, resignation, redundancy, dismissal.
I.C.T. in the Business Environment
Candidates should be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of:
- the purposes of the main data input devices, eg keyboard, scanner, OMR, pointing devices;
- the purposes of the main data storage devices, eg hard drive, floppy disk drive, CD/DVD drive, zip drive and other high capacity storage devices;
- the purposes of the main data output devices, eg printer (dot matrix, ink jet, laser), communication hardware;
- the characteristics and uses of application software, eg word processing, presentation software, spreadsheets, database, graphics and DTP and their value for particular tasks;
- the use of local and wide area networks including intranet and the internet.
With regard to all of the above topic areas, candidates should be able to demonstrate the ability to apply this knowledge and understanding. They should be encouraged to analyse and evaluate situations, to investigate advantages and drawbacks and to suggest improvements and solutions.
Spreadsheets & Charts
When completing spreadsheets and charts pupils should have the ability to:
- design and create a spreadsheet that fulfils a particular task;
- insert, delete and re-size columns and rows as required by a particular task;
- insert, amend and delete labels, values and formulae within a spreadsheet;
- replicate formulae and values as required;
- format cells in an appropriate way e.g. alignment, decimal places, currency;
- display and print formulae;
- sort rows in numerical, alphabetical or chronological order;
- import data from a spreadsheet package to create a chart;
- produce a variety of charts to meet the needs of given situations, e.g. line graphs, bar graphs, pie charts;
- insert an appropriate title (emphasised) and data legends.
Workplace Organisation
Candidates should be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of:
- different environments within the workplace (open plan, cellular) and how the needs of the business and the demands of particular tasks can determine the type of office layout used;
- recent developments such as hot-desking, teleworking and flexible working;
- how the efficiency of employees can be influenced positively by the design of their surroundings (ergonomics);
- the importance of health and safety in the workplace; an awareness of the Health and safety at Work Act and the Health and Safety (Display Screen Equipment) Regulations together with the role and responsibilities of both employers and employees;
- the importance of accurate preparation, storage and retrieval of information;
- keeping data secure (both personal and financial) from hazards both physical and electronic (viruses) including methods of protecting data; the Data Protection Act;
- the effective use of resources including human resources.
Word Processing
Pupils should have the ability to:
- produce accurate hard copy;
- correct any errors in the spelling, punctuation or grammar that may appear in the text and apply the conventions of layout and display;
- make appropriate use of blocked or indented styles, line spacing, centring, justification, enumeration, bullet points;
- correctly use display features such as closed capitals, spaced capitals, emboldening, italics, a variety of fonts and different font sizes;
- carry out any amendments that may be indicated as necessary in the form of hand-written notes, insertions etc.;
- rearrange material in alphabetical, numerical and chronological sequence;
- use search and replace facilities;
- move text, using cut, copy and paste functions;
- understand how mail merge can be used in conjunction with a database file;
- use appropriate page layouts, including headers, footers, page numbers, columns;
- respond to the common conventional correction symbols used in word processing and printing;
- place borders around sections of text.
The specifications are listed here only as a rough guide and you should check the specifics of them on the AQA website or in the appropriate AQA publication.