Why study Enterprise and Entrepreneurship?

The Pearson BTEC National Diploma in Enterprise and Entrepreneurship is an Applied General qualification for post-16 learners who want to continue their education through applied learning and aim to progress to higher education and ultimately to employment in the enterprise sector. The qualification is equivalent in size to one A-level.

A BTEC National Diploma is an academic, practical and vocational course where you will learn by completing projects and assignments that are based on realistic workplace situations and activities in addition to a number of externally set tasks and exams.

What are the careers or further education that this course be suitable for?

When studied with other Level 3 qualifications, learners can progress into higher education on combined courses. Students could also progress to Higher Apprenticeships in areas such as business administration, marketing, accounting, sales or enterprise. The qualification will also give students the skills to enter the self-employed market.

Key Information Summary:

Course Details:

BTECs embody a fundamentally learner-centred approach to the curriculum, with a flexible, unit-based structure and knowledge applied in project-based assessments. They focus on the holistic development of the practical, interpersonal and thinking skills required to be able to succeed in employment and higher education.

Subject Content:

The course is made up of eight units (or subjects) which cover the broad range of the enterprise sector. Three of the units are assessed internally through the production of a portfolio of evidence. This evidence is generated through written assignments, presentations or practical demonstrations. Five of the units are assessed externally through an exam and set tasks.

Unit One: Enterprise and entrepreneurship

In this unit, you will gain an overview of the importance of both enterprise and entrepreneurs to the local and national economy. You will explore their creativity and mindset as you look at real-life enterprise and entrepreneurs, and investigate the skills required to be successful. You will also look at the risks, opportunities and constraints faced by entrepreneurs in setting up their venture, assess the feasibility of a range of potential enterprise opportunities and then develop and present one idea for a local enterprise.

Unit Two: Developing a Marketing Campaign

Marketing is a dynamic field central to the success of any business. You will gain an understanding of how a marketing campaign is developed. You will explore different stages of the process that a business goes through when developing its campaign and develop your own campaign for a given product/service.

Unit Three: Business and Personal Finance

This unit includes aspects of both personal and business finance. Personal finance involves the understanding of why money is important and how managing your money can help prevent future financial difficulties. The business finance aspects of the unit introduce you to accounting terminology, the purpose and importance of business accounts and the different sources of finance available to businesses.

This unit will help you to analyse profitability, liquidity and business efficiency. It will give you the knowledge and understanding to manage your personal finances and will give you a background to business finance and accounting as you progress to employment or further training.

Unit Four: Launch and Run an Enterprise

With the changing trends in employment and the lack of job security, many people are now choosing to become self-employed and start up their own enterprise. According to the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB), at the start of 2014 small firms accounted for 99.3 per cent of all private sector businesses in the UK. Of these, 62% were sole proprietorships. 

Many of these enterprises are started by young people, either as an alternative to higher education or as an enterprise that can be run alongside higher education or a job. There are many well-known examples of young entrepreneurs and there is nothing to stop you from joining their ranks. You need a good idea, spot a gap in the market and have the organisational skills to launch and run an enterprise. You will develop a plan for an enterprise and create a marketing strategy to inform your target market about your product/service. Once you have stimulated the demand for your product/service, you will launch and run your enterprise for a set period of time. You will be able to draw on the knowledge, understanding and skills you have developed through studying earlier units to help make your enterprise a success. To complete the assessment task within this unit, you will need to draw on your learning from across your programme. 

This unit will develop your teamwork, communication, time-management, negotiation and problem solving skills. It will help you develop the essential transferable skills that employers look for, and which are needed to start an enterprise. The unit will provide a useful opportunity to consider career plans and further study.

Unit Five: Survival and Growth

In order to survive, an enterprise must ensure that it controls costs and uses resources as efficiently as possible. Technology can play an important role in this and provide information to help identify market opportunities and formulate strategies to influence the growth and future direction of the enterprise. As it grows, the venture may need additional human resources. This will impose legal responsibilities on the owners, who have to decide the most effective way to organise and motivate the workforce. There will also be a stage in the development of the enterprise when the owners will have to decide whether they will seek additional capital to finance future growth or sell the business.

In this unit, you will explore the factors influencing the survival of the enterprise, including the role of technology and the implications of increasing the size of the workforce, considering the choices available to an enterprise wishing to expand. You will also investigate the reasons why enterprises fail, looking at both internal and external factors in the business environment. Alternatively, an owner may wish to sell their enterprise, rather than expand, and you will consider the factors they need to take into account when deciding an exit strategy. 

This unit will help you to obtain a more in-depth understanding of the challenges faced by entrepreneurs. It will help you when making career choices and will also support progression to higher education.

Unit Six: Business Decision Making

The aim of this unit is to consolidate understanding and skills to enable you to interpret data, and to formulate decisions and solutions to given complex business problems. You will consider business situations/scenarios where you are required to select and use appropriate evidence from several sources to support your arguments. You will predict probable consequences, identify faulty arguments or misrepresentations of information or data, compare information and data, provide reasonable alternatives, and evaluate and justify your proposed solutions. To complete the assessment task within this unit, you will need to draw on your learning from across your programme. 

This unit will help you to understand the importance of decision making and planning in a business and enable you to progress to employment, self-employment, training or higher education. This has been selected as an externally-assessed unit as it allows you to demonstrate your ability to extract relevant information and apply the knowledge and understanding you have developed.

Unit Eight Entrepreneurship and Intrapreneurship in practice

In this unit, you will explore the characteristics of successful entrepreneurs. You will also investigate the strategies employed by enterprises to develop and use entrepreneurial skills in their own workforce. This will involve you undertaking research on local enterprises which could involve activities such as formal or informal work experience, interviewing local business owners/managers or visiting local enterprises to investigate their structure and workplace practices.

Unit Nine: Innovation and Enterprises

Enterprises need to remain competitive. An enterprise must be able to produce products and services to meet the constantly changing demands of consumers, trends and technology. In order to maintain the interest of their customers, an enterprise needs to be constantly evolving and adapting to changes in the business environment and trends. 

In this unit, you will explore and understand what innovation is about. It is not just about coming up with the latest hi-tech gadget, it is to do with changing processes so that the enterprise becomes more efficient, as well as responding creatively to the needs and interests of consumers. You will look at the role of innovation in determining the success of the enterprise and examine the stages of innovation. 

This unit will help you to become more creative in your approach to challenges presented by interview panels, either in the business world or when applying for higher education courses.

Course Assessment