Assessment type: Coursework 1
Intake 2.0 (Students finishing in August 2016)
Overall weighting: 10 per cent of the final mark
Date assignment set: Wednesday February 17th 2016
Date assignment due: Wednesday March 9th 2016
Introduction to Coursework 1
This coursework will involve researching into the area of business activity in order to help you understand the importance of adding value through business activity. You will identify a business in Manchester to use as a case study, in order to perform this assessment. There is particular emphasis on value adding and the way factors of production (inputs) are combined. As a group you will make decisions about your choice of business.
The coursework assignment will be made up of two tasks:
Task 1: Group work evaluation report. Word limit: 500 words
Task 2: Business activity report. Word limit: 1000 words
Section from the NCUK syllabus 2015-2016:
Section A: Business Activity
Section B: Business Legal Structures
Section D: The Nature of Marketing
Section G: Market research
Section H: The Marketing mix
Following the group activities (explained below) each student will submit an individual assignment, two weeks from the date of issue of the coursework. The whole assignment (tasks 1 and 2) is worth 100% of Coursework 1. Assessment criteria will be used for each section. The assignment must be word processed and presented in a professional way. This includes correctly referencing of all the sources used in a bibliography.
Submission: submit your assignment by midnight on the date before the assignment is due, and hand in a hard (paper) copy to your class teacher on the day of submission.
Assignment Brief: Business activity in a given sector/industry
This coursework involves your group choosing a business in a particular sector/industry and explaining the process of how a business adds value to their products/services. You will need to pool your ideas as a group, but then write the work up individually. Please note:each student will submit an individual piece of work.
TASK 1 preparation: Group activity
(Note: Your group should contain a maximum of 2/3 members.)
In your group you will need to choose a Manchester business as a case study. You need to explain how this business undertakes the process of adding value. You will need to use primary and secondary market research techniques to gather qualitative and quantitative information about the business. Your assignment needs to provide evidence of both primary and secondary research. The mark achieved for your work will reflect the use of both these research methods.
Primary market research could involve the production of a questionnaire or holding interviews with the stakeholders of the business about how they add value and how the effectiveness of this. Secondary market research could include collecting information about current business activities with details of how factor inputs are transformed into final goods or services.
Each group member should contribute equally to the preparatory market research (primary and secondary) and provide evidence of their contribution in task 1 of the individual assignment. Each group member will be individually graded.
TASK 1 suggested outline: Group work evaluation report
Word Limit – 500 Words
This section should focus on the processes your group went through in order to complete the group activity. You will need to:
• Explainhow the tasks for the group activity were allocated among group members. Assess how effective you think this method was.
• Outlineyour role and duties completed in the group activity. Assess how your contribution helped the team achieve the task successfully.
• Evaluatethe effectiveness of the market research undertaken, such as the questionnaire or website information.
• Outline what you would do differently in the future if this activity was undertaken again.
TASK 2 suggested outline: Business Activity report
Word Limit – 1000 Words
In this section you will discuss the business activity chosen by your group. You will need to:
• Outline the nature of your chosen business and it’s sector/industry (including what it does).
• Explain the process of business activity (this should include links to the factors of production and the transformation of inputs and outputs.
• Analyse the data you have collected from your market research using bar graphs and pie charts, for example.
• Explain how the data (qualitative and quantitative) from the market research has helped you understand the way this business transforms inputs into outputs (goods, services and waste).
• Evaluate or make a judgement on how effective you think this business activity is in adding value by considering its outputs.
• Justify your group decisions.
TASKS 1 and 2 will be assessed using the NCUK Assessment Criteria. There must be evidence of the following skills (and their weightings) across the two tasks:
Assessment criteria Weighting (%)
Knowledge and understanding 20
Application 25
Analysis 25
Evaluation 20
Study skills 10
The grid below explains how the marks are allocated at different grade boundaries:
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