Business

Business Studies helps you to make more informed decisions in the everyday business of living. It gives you a better understanding of the world of work. It encourages you to think about how and why people start up in business and why you too might consider starting a business.

What you will learn:

Some of the things you will learn include:

  1. Good communication skills such as letter writing and report writing
  2. How to calculate your wages when you start working (including the minimum wage)
  3. How to collect, organise and record financial information for yourself, your family, clubs you may be a member of or businesses you may be employed by in the future.
  4. What your rights and responsibilities are as a consumer (someone who buys or uses goods and services – that’s you!)
  5. Why E.U. membership is so important to our country.
  6. What it takes to be an Entrepreneur (person who starts their own business)

Junior Cycle Business:

The specification for junior cycle business studies focuses on improving students’ understanding of the business environment and on developing skills for life, work and further study through the three inter-connected strands: Personal Finance, Enterprise and Our Economy.

  • Exam worth 90%
  • Common level

Junior Cert Course Content

The 3 main areas covered in Junior Certificate are:

  • Personal Finance (Budgeting, Consumer Rights, Understanding Payslips)
  • Enterprise (Forms of Business, People at Work, Entrepreneurship)
  • Our Economy (Supply and Demand, Globalisation of Trade, Importing and Exporting)

Exam Structure

  • Classroom based assessment 1 which is an investigation of a product
  • Classroom based assessment 2 which is an individual presentation
  • Assessment task worth 10% which is linked to the classroom based assessment 2

Leaving Cert Business

Under Senior Cycle Reform, the Leaving Certificate course will be changing in September 2025.

Leaving Certificate Business develops students’ awareness of the significance of business for the Irish and international economy and helps to foster an understanding of how the world of business works. Students learn how business is relevant to their own lives, develop financial and business literacy, appreciate business in the world around them and how business is shaped by those who work, lead, and manage within the business environment.

Course Content
Strand 1: Exploring the business environment. Topics include business and the economy, international trade, globalisation.
Strand 2: Understanding enterprise. Topics include marketing, enterprise, finance, insurance and taxation.
Strand 3: Leading in Business. Topics include communication, planning, leading and managing people.
Strand 4: Being informed and making informed decisions. Topics include consumer rights, industrial relations and personal finance.

There are four key themes which run throughout the course:
1. Ethics and sustainability.
2. Digital transformation.
3. Business and financial literacy.
4. Entrepreneurial thinking.

Assessment
Business is assessed at Higher and Ordinary Level. Both are assessed as follows:

Exam – 60%.
Additional Assessment Component (AAC) – 40%.

Exam Structure
The exam is 2 hours 30 minutes for Higher and Ordinary Level. The layout of the exam is also the same for both levels.

Question 1 – compulsory. A case study style question requiring students to apply knowledge from the curriculum.
Choose any three other questions out of four to complete.

Additional Assessment Component
The Additional Assessment Component (AAC) in Leaving Certificate Business involves students completing the Business Alive Investigative Study which will require students to demonstrate their capacity to conduct, analyse and evaluate research on a particular issue, using a variety of sources and considering a range of perspectives, while drawing on their ongoing engagement with the world of business.

The brief for the study will be issued in term two of 5th year by the SEC and will set out the requirements for students. As part of their study students will complete a report which will be submitted digitally during 6th year to the SEC in a format specified by the SEC.

Further information: https://www.curriculumonline.ie/getmedia/e81ccca9-fdf5-42e9-a291-52e9549820c9/SC-Business-Spec-ENG.pdf