The New BTEC Level 2 First in Business - A Specification Nightmare

Perhaps not the best way to finish a year. I’ve just spent three hours reading through the new 2010 specification for BTEC First in Business. What a depressing read!

It doesn’t help that the new spec runs to 320 pages, 250 of which explain the suggested approach for each of the 25 units. 320 pages for a 360-guided-learning-hour qualification. It will almost take as long to read and print the spec out as it will to deliver the course

25 units? Yes - 25 units, of which four are mandatory for the Level 2 Diploma (providing one third of the 60 credits that need to be earned). That leaves an almost bewildering choice of 21 optional units, with a mixture of 5 or 10 credits for each, for a business dept to choose from.

It will be interesting to see which optional units centres choose. Some units draw heavily on more practical office-based topics such as using office equipment and methods of business communication.

Other units seem, at first sight, to be much more challenging - both to the student and to the centre trying to find resources or design suitable assignments. The two units on lean production are great examples of that.

The initial impression I get from looking at the “essential resources” and “indicative reading for learners” for each unit is that very little care and attention has been applied in the writing of the spec.

Take the units (where the content is almost wholly duplicated) on Business Enterprise (Unit 16) and Starting a Small Business (Unit 17).

What “indicative reading for learners” is suggested for these two fundamentally important units? A motley collection of out-of-date (and some out-of-print) books from the late 1990’s - that’s what.

Quite what students will gain from consulting the Lloyds TSB Small Business Guide 2000, or the obscure “Working for Yourself 1998”, is open to doubt. There have been some tremendous, accessible guides and books written on entrepreneurship in the last couple of years - all of which are easily found in the Amazon bestselling lists - but none of which are recommended by the spec. No mention either of the terrific BusinessLink, Startups or Enterprise Nation websites. Its an example of where centres are being badly let down by shoddy, lazy specification writing.

Look through any of the other Units in the spec, and you are hard-pressed to find relevant, accessible, topical reading and resources listed. Lots of references to GCSE textbooks written in 2001; even more references to titles that are firmly targeted at undergraduate and professional readers - let alone a 15-16 year old student trying to get to grips with a business course.

Another gripe? (I’m turning into a grumpy old man) How about some of the claims made for some of the Units.

I suspect there is little expectation that many centres (if any) will actually offer some of these Units. But the two units on lean operations are great examples of where the new 2010 spec has become seriously imbalanced.

Take a look at this claim made for leaners who opt to spend their 30 guided learning hours on Unit 24 (Business Improvement Tools and Techniques):

Page 269 of the spec reads:

“This unit has been designed to give learners the understanding and confidence to employ world-class techniques within a working environment”

...it goes on…

“The unit will enable learners to investigate the continuous improvement of process management and will equip the learner with Kaizen tools and techniques, which can be applied within the workplace to facilitate lean systems”.

It sounds fantastic. But anyone who has ever worked in a business employing “world-class” techniques of lean production, or who has attempted to study it at undergraduate or MBA level, will know that the claims made for Unit 24 are “complete bollocks” (to borrow an oft-used phrase in informal operations management)

30 guided learning hours to gain “understanding and confidence to employ world-class techniques”. Its a shocker - and that kind of claim has no sensible place in a Level 2 Business qualification, in my view.

Much more credible would be a unit where students could consider the issue of business quality and waste - practical ways in which a business can minimise waste and keep costs under control. But oh no, they have to dive into “world-class techniques”.

Unit 23 (Lean Organisation Techniques in Business) makes similar claims about its ability to turn 30 GLHrs into students who can “implement productivity needs analysis process”. I won’t go any further on that one!

Finally, I really wish I hadn’t looked at Unit 12: Business Online (which I suspect may prove a popular choice with many centres). 60 GLHs for this one - 10 credits; so a big chunk of the course.

The spec for Unit 12 could have been written in 2000 so outdated is it in terms of what doing business online is really about in 2010.

Page 150 of the spec delivers this clear guidance to tutors delivering Unit 12:

“The world of online business is constantly changing and tutors must be aware of the latest developments in business and technology”

The suggested content for Unit 12 goes on…

- students are encouraged to use specialist web development software such as “MS Frontpage” (discontinued in late 2006) and MS Word (really? for e-commerce?)
- students look at the use of clipart in designing websites + addressing the problem of slow download speeds (UK broadband penetration anyone?)
- students consider the negative impact of online business arising from social isolation and breakdown of communities (is this for students also taking a joint course in sociology?)

Is there any mention of content management systems? e-commerce packages (hosted / solus)? Use of social media and other Web 2.0 techniques to do business online? No

And the suggested “indicative reading for learners” to become “aware of the latest developments in business and technology”?
- GCSE Business Studies (Anderton) 2004 edition
- GCSE Applied Business (Fardon, Nuttall) 2002
- Nuffield Business & Economics (Wall & Wales) 2001

Good luck everyone!