An Offsted report published this month describes "too much" of secondary school business education as "uninspiring"

Offsted based their report on the inspection of 118 secondary schools between 2004 and 2007.    The report shows that there are widely different methods used for teaching economics and business studies, and that these achieved widely differing results.

Characteristics of the weaker lessons included too much talk by teachers, closed questions and the overdependence on worksheets.  A recurring theme throughout the report was that there was too much emphasis on the descriptive work, and not enough on evaluation and analysis.

The report also raises the issue that students are sometimes disappointed by the lack of practical aspects to the courses, and specifically mention not enough, if any, time spent with local employers and businesses.

We, at Fantasy Couriers,  believe that Economics and Business studies has the potential to be one of the most engaging and interesting methods of teaching students.  Business studies courses and activities give students the opportunity to take skills that they have learnt from other subjects and to apply them in a practical environment.

For example, algebra and equations make for some pretty dry maths lessons. Students are frequently unable to properly grasp the principles behind algebra because its a concept.

But if you take that concept, and drop into an environment that the student can understand and internalise, then suddenly principles stop being concepts and start becoming tools.

For example get students to apply the concepts of algebra to work out a cost price for a product, or a break even sales level.  How many units do you need to sell at what price....., is a much better springboard for discussion, involvement and understanding than "if a+b=c and d+e=f , then...."

Finance and Business is the most common post school application of maths and numeracy for most people, with the exception obviously of those who develop the skills further into higher education, and the sciences.    So why wait until children leave school for them to practise this, lets teach them to apply their knowledge, and how to use it everyday in a practical way.

Discussions here centre on the use of Maths, but this could be equally applied to many other curriculum areas.  For example Art & Design, there are a small percentage of people that are able to use their Art & Design skills to build careers in Art, Architecture, Fashion and the literary world.  But a far larger percentage will use their Art & Design skills in a busines environment.  Designing websites, advertising & marketing materials, business documentation, manuals etc.

Fantasy Couriers believe that we should not think of Business Studies as a subject on the curriculum, it is instead a vehicle which can take the theoretical learnings of other subjects and show how these subjects have a real practical and modern relevance to everyday society, and our economy and world as a whole.

Business is the thing that keeps the world turning, and the current economic crisis has demonstrated clearly to everyone that business in America or China effects household happiness in the UK, and it is vital that we teach our young people to understand this.

A full version of the Offsted report can be found here.