Assessment Type 1: Business Skills

Students undertake:

•    two business skills tasks and one business model summary for a 10-credit subject
•    four business skills tasks and two business model summaries for a 20-credit subject. 

The business skills tasks enable students to demonstrate their learning across all four learning strands.

Individual tasks within business skills may focus on one learning strand or on a combination of learning strands. The business skills tasks should cover the context(s) studied.

At least one business skills tasks should be a collaborative task. Students may work in a school or community-based group, or any other appropriate collaboration. They may collaborate face-to-face or in a digital environment including social media.

Across the set of business skills tasks, students demonstrate:

• application of customer-focused approaches to explore and solve problems or needs
• analysis of business and financial information and application of decision-making skills using assumption-based planning tools
• development and evaluation of business models
• analysis of the responsibilities and impact of business models on communities
• analysis of opportunities presented by digital and emerging technologies
• communication and collaborative skills.

Business skills tasks may include, for example:

• students develop a 30-day plan for their business, documenting the strategies and actions they would take to achieve a set objective
• students write a short social-media campaign around a key milestone in their business
• students map the phases of their business through start-up, growth, maturity, and decline on a timeline or storyboard
• students analyse information on a business case presented to them and complete an assessment about what is working for the business and what is not
• students identify and investigate an environmental or social need facing a community and recommend possible solutions to the board of a social enterprise. 

Business model summary

The business model summary will form the basis of Assessment Type 2: Business Pitch.

In readiness for Assessment Type 2: Business Pitch, students individually prepare a business model summary of a solution to a customer need or problem. The business model summary should be a maximum of 800 words if written, 5 minutes if oral, or the equivalent if multimodal. The business model summary includes:

• a branding concept, including business name and tag line
• the customer problem or need
• proposed solution – product, service, or process
• customer segment
• competitor analysis 
• marketing and distribution strategy
• cost structure and revenue model.

For a 10-credit subject, the tasks as a set (including the business model summary) comprise a maximum of 2400 words if written, or 15 minutes if oral, or the equivalent if multimodal.

For a 20-credit subject, the tasks as a set (including the business model summaries) comprise a maximum of 4800 words if written, or 30 minutes if oral, or the equivalent if multimodal.

For this assessment type, students provide evidence of their learning primarily in relation to the following assessment design criteria:

• finding and solving problems
• contextual application
• analysis and evaluation.