Economics

Course summary

If you ever wonder about issues like what caused the last financial crisis, why poverty exists and whether Brexit is a good idea, then economics could be for you. You don't need to have studied economics at GCSE to take the A Level course. Depending on the career path you want to take in the future, economics fits particularly well with other social science subjects, history, and geography, but equally as well with business-related subjects. It will give you a great set of transferable skills frequently sought by employers including numerical, analytical and problem-solving skills as well as commercial awareness: an essential requirement for business. Why are some people rich and others poor? Why do we worry about unemployment, inflation, the balance of payments, economic growth, the rate of interest, and the value of sterling? Should the government interfere with the activities of businesses? What is globalisation? Why do millions of children in less economically developed countries die of malnutrition and preventable diseases? Why are the world's rainforests disappearing at the rate of one acre per second? These questions are the focus of much national and international debate. To truly understand them a basic grounding in economics is essential. Economics is the study of the forces within human society that lead to the creation of material wealth and the problems of scarcity of resources. It explains how these forces work to benefit mankind and why sometimes it is necessary to control them. The ethos of this course is investigation. Students are expected to show initiative and apply the ideas and theories discussed in class to economic and business events going on in everyday life. In class, students are expected to take part in activities such as listening, note-taking, researching and asking and answering questions. In addition, they will be asked to give presentations to the whole group, take part in simulations and interrogate computer databases.