Five Strategies to ‘Save’ your Business Studies Department

How might Business Studies Departments respond to the challenges posed by Michael Gove’s education reforms? Following my previous article examining the potentially stark implications of Michael Gove’s reforms for the standing of Business Studies within the education system (which at the time of writing has had over 3,300 hits in a few days) Jim Riley challenged me to put on my best PG tips monkey grin and share some thoughts that might act as a starting point to a wider debate as to how Business Studies departments might appropriately respond.

Introduction

I offer advanced apologies for the generic and skeletal nature of some of the below suggestions, appreciating that in some schools, much of what is suggested is ongoing in various forms.

With regard to the skeletal nature of the suggestions, they are offered as a starting point only and are indicative not prescriptive – the sheer diversity of school circumstances militates against global prescriptive solutions. Moreover, apologies are also offered to those who work in centres where they have retained Humanities in their fullness, where the need to ‘save’ the Business Studies department may appear somewhat quixotic.

The following suggestions were informed by the input of several individuals across different centres who are currently involved in the strategic review of curriculum models, for which I am thankful. To this end, I have tried not to begin by answering the departmental question of ‘What should I do?’ but have attempted to view the situation through the prism of SLT, which is more akin to asking “What do we (as a SLT) expect to see?”

1) Marketing : Fight Perception and Champion Reality

An obvious and immediate start may be to ensure that both students (especially 6th formers) and relevant stakeholders within the school are apprised of the facts concerning the value of a Business Studies Degree. It is not universally known amongst students, parents and school leadership that:

A) Business Studies and Marketing graduates had a higher post graduation employment rate (72%) than any other subject discipline. (the figures can be found here). On that measure, if education is about giving employers what they want, Business Studies and associated subjects ought to be given due importance.

B) The same survey revealed, Management Studies students earn, on average, more upon graduation than virtually any other discipline.

C) According to my conversations with admissions managers from top business schools, graduate salaries of £35-40,000 are commonplace alongside placement salaries of £25-30,000 (although the entry requirement of AAA may not be for the faint hearted!)

Making the above or similar known to students, parents and staff cannot but assist in correcting a ‘soft subject’ perception within a school which may carry weight at the time of a SLT review. Indeed, staff may consider what exactly is ‘soft’ about an entry requirement of AAA and hardnosed well remunerated graduate jobs!

When is the last time you filled a common room poster board with the above information or handed out flyers or pointed students to such information via social media?!
Can you safely assume that your head / management team are aware of this information at a critical time of structural re-organisation?

2) Add Value – and be seen to be ‘Adding Value’

One insight from my conversations with SLT members across different schools was that many individuals held an expectation that departments would go ‘over and beyond’ as a given. It was something they expected to ‘see’. When setting two similarly performing departments against each other, such factors carry weight. One SLT member commented that he ‘knew’ the Business Studies department in his school was ‘strong’ because every year he and others on SLT are aware that the Business Studies department were “noted for their high profile business games, trips, revision conferences and enterprise week events”

Whilst this is far from scientific, or indeed sound as a way of assessing a department, it indicates the potential benefits of such events. One of the most successful Business Studies departments in the country, sets itself a termly target of carrying out a ‘Big Ticket’ event. In short, a whole-school event with very high profile.

When was the last time your Business Studies department staged a ‘Big Ticket’ event?

3) Enrichment

A progressively important factor in the evaluation of a department’s relevant merits is student feedback which is increasingly delivered electronically. Raising students’ satisfaction has been a keen focus for a number of schools in recent years, given the eager attention of SLT to the annual results. This was prevalent in my discussions with existing SLT members. Satisfaction is of course a multi-faceted concept and in this context, student ratings are often influenced by:

a) Classroom teaching ;
b) Resources;
c) Extra-curricular activities; and
d) Business links.

Whilst space permits a discussion of all the possibilities regarding the above, staff looking for a business studies trip that ‘works’ could do worse than consider T2U’s ” Eight Best Business Studies Trips” in Latte magazine, or for something farther afield, a 6th form trip to New York with several different providers works wonders for student recruitment at KS4 . Closer to home, from talking to students and teachers who have attended, T2U (or any other appropriate) revision conferences are well received by students, parents and SLT alike. Staff who want to invigorate their classroom practice may consider spending even a brief time with Lord Sutch who is one of the most innovative classroom practitioners to be around and is always good for an idea or three. For a cost effective package of classroom resources which will liven up starters and plenaries, several teachers have recommended a compendium of powerpoints from Sapphire Education.

The appropriate mix or choice of enrichment will be a localised decision and often depend upon local business links and course selection – but the mix will be a crucial factor in determining student satisfaction scores.
In the event, that your school does not collect any data regarding student satisfaction (and in my view it is a matter of ‘when’ not ‘if’ ) then perhaps this is an opportune moment to secure some profile for the department and lead the way in this area? There are many tools in this area, but Survey Monkey remains a popular choice.

4) If you can’t Bacc them Join ‘Em!

Barring a shock election, it is likely that the EBac measure is here to stay for the foreseeable future. A potential strategic decision might be to begin planning medium term opportunities to support and underpin the EBac within your particular school. A cursory examination of the History and Geography syllabi reveals numerous opportunities for cross-departmental enrichment projects including but not limited to:

- Business Location (impact upon local areas and employment patterns)
- Business Sectors (in relation to local history and the impact of growth industries upon the landscape)
- Business Ethics / Externalities / Stakeholders (environmental issues, global warming)
- Human Resources / Motivation / Ethics / Specialisation (The Industrial Revolution)

Suffice to say, it is likely that Humanities staff and SLT are likely to be appreciative of any assistance offered in helping the school achieve its headline targets.

5) Results, Results, Results

Underpinning all of the above is an unrelenting focus upon results – either to improve or maintain standards whether this is ALIS, Jesson, FFT ‘D’ / ‘D’+1 or Raise Online. It is important that the main thing, remains the main thing and that in today’s environment is academic achievement as measured by exam results. As one SLT member in an ‘outstanding’ school relayed to me: “In the absence of all the other things we’ve discussed, it may well be the only rational reason left to keep a department in its current form”.

As to how to improve results…..