Subject Leader:  Mr David Feery

Business Teacher's Name	Contact
Mr Canning	dcanning@st-andrews.ie
Mr Dee	ndee@st-andrews.ie
Mr Doyle	jdoyle@st-andrews.ie
Ms Jenkinson	rjenkinson@st-andrews.ie
Ms Pinder	lpinder@st-andrews.ie
Ms Sloan	esloan@st-andrews.ie

• Junior Certificate Business Studies
• Economic
• Business
• Accounting

The Business Studies course is divided into four separate but related parts:

• The Business of Living
• The Business Environment
• Record Keeping
• Information Technology

Each of these areas teaches students how to manage their money and make better decisions.  This means that students are encouraged to become more responsible about their money and how they spend it.  Students will learn that 'leaving things to chance' is a poor rule in life.  It is better to make plans and learn from any mistakes you make.

Personal and business finance is the basis for Part 1: The Business of Living.  At the end of this section students will understand the types of financial decisions that people and families are faced with.  The aim of this section is to make students aware of the role they can play in controlling their finances whether they are too young to work, are unemployed, self-employed or work for someone else.

The rest of the course applies the household situation to the business setting.  At home it is your money you are spending.  When you work for someone else it is their money you are spending.  If you make mistakes with their money or if you spend it foolishly, they, your employer, will not be too pleased. Therefore, these decisions are similar to the home, but because you are dealing with someone else's money great care must be taken or you could lose your job.

Working for someone else is not always possible or desirable.  The alternatives are to become unemployed or self employed.  The course looks at both of these situations and the types of financial decisions they demand.

Business Studies, therefore, is about being careful with money.  It is also about taking calculated risks and not being afraid of failure.  Or, when you do fail, learning from your mistakes and not repeating them the next time.  The course supplies a setting for the study of care and risk and gives strong encouragement for students to 'get into business' and enjoy it.

NOTE:

Entry into the Senior cycle subjects of Business, Economics and Accounting is in no way affected by the level undertaken at Junior Certificate.  In fact, it is not necessary to have taken Business Studies at all.

Business Studies is taught in mixed ability classes. The Higher Level course consists of two examination papers, with one concentrating more on book-keeping skills.  The Ordinary Level course consists of one examination paper.

(Business is the only optional course with two examinations).

ECONOMICS

ECONOMICS is the more analytical of the three, the course being designed to give a broad picture of economic activity on a national and international basis and deals with the basic concepts and principles of Economics.  Although a more abstract subject than the other two, Economics has great practical application in that it helps students to understand the working of the economy around them.  The theory on the course is closely related to current, topical issues such as inflation, balance of payments problems, national wage negotiations.  In nearly every newspaper one picks up today, there is probably an article on some aspect of the economy where a basic knowledge of Economics would help one to understand it more fully. Many political issues today are really economic issues.  A study of Economics is probably a study of one of the most topical subjects on the course.  If you are interested in current affairs and politics, Economics is a good subject to study, it is also a useful base of most administrative, clerical and management jobs; useful for Social Science courses and careers, for Business Studies; Commerce or Economics courses; for Management, Marketing and Advertising; for Civil Service and Local Government jobs.  Many professional bodies - e.g. Accountancy, Banking, Insurance have Economics as a subject in their examinations and it is useful to have studied it at school.

BUSINESS 

This new syllabus (1997) was introduced to replace Business Organisation. 'Business' is a business option within the established Leaving Certificate programme.  It is concerned with the understanding of the environment in which business operates in Ireland and in the wider world.  It also involves equipping the students with a positive view of enterprise and its applications in the business environment, in both the public and private sectors.

Aims - to develop a clear understanding of the role of enterprise, to encourage the development of appropriate enterprise learning skills, and to generate in students a positive and ethical attitude to enterprise in personal, business and public life.

To develop a critical understanding of the overall environment in which business functions.

To help prepare students for participation in a changing business environment for adult and working life and also as a basis for further education.

 

5th Year Business
Term 1	Term 2	Term 3
People in business	Marketing	HRM
Relationships in business	Expansion	Role of management
Conflict	Introduction to management
Social responsibility	Management skills
Enterprise	Management activities
Enterprise skills
Identifying opportunities
Getting started

 

6th Year Business
Term 1	Term 2	Term 3
Tax	Community development	Revision
Insurance	Government and business
Finance	International environment
Monitoring the business	European Union
Categories of industry	International business
Types of business orgs
Business and the economy

ACCOUNTING

As a subject, Accounting promotes the personal development of the individual:

• It develops problems solving and computational skills and an awareness and recognition of the consequences of error.
• It develops skills in the use of figures in business communications, in analysis and in decision making.
• It provides a subject choice for those students who have an aptitude for numerical skills.
• It cultivates mental discipline, develops the powers of concentration and fosters critical thinking, logical organisation and orderly presentation.
• It facilitates the acquisition of a language which is universally used in communications within the business world and within society at large.
• It links the accounting process with Information Technology.
• It fosters the concept of accountability.
• It develops a positive attitude towards:

1. Ethical behaviour

2. Profit motive

3. Entrepreneurship

4. Innovation and technological development

 

Consequently accounting is of personal use and benefit to students whether they enter the workforce immediately or proceed to third-level education and should they become involved in voluntary organisations.  Overall the Accounting syllabus builds in the student good work habits, efficiency, responsibility, a sense of achievement in work well done and an increase in self-confidence.

 

 

5th Year Accounting
Term 1	Term 2	Term 3
Introduction to Accounting	Club Accounts	Suspense Accounts
Depreciation of a fixed asset	Service firm Accounts	Flexible Budgets
Revaluation of a fixed asset	Tabular Statements
Debtors/Creditors Control	Absorption Costing
Marginal Costing

 

6th Year Accounting
Term 1	Term 2	Term 3
Cash Flow Statements	Interpretation of Accounts	Revision
Incomplete Records 1& 2	Incomplete Records 3
Published Accounts	Production Budgets
Farm Accounts	Cash Budgets