Why Train to Be a Business Studies Teacher?

As with all teaching jobs, you will get the chance to make a difference to a young person’s life, inspiring them and helping them achieve their full potential. As a business studies teacher, you’ll help young people understand the dynamic environment in which businesses operate and develop the skills they’ll need for everyday life. These valuable skills will play an important role in their future development – whether that’s as they progress towards apprenticeships, further education, entering a profession or starting up their own business.

What is Life Like as a Business Studies Teacher?

In contrast to many other secondary teaching roles, you will generally only teach students in key stages 4 and 5, i.e. when they are studying the subject for GCSE or A-Level. This means that, on the whole, your students have opted to study your subject and are genuinely interested. They also may not have studied it previously, so you get the opportunity to ignite their interest for the very first time. As with all teaching roles, you need to use your subject knowledge and experience to create engaging and inspiring lessons. You will also spend time marking students’ assignments, recording their progress, and communicating with colleagues and parents about their development. While you will spend much of your time teaching in the classroom, you will also take part in staff meetings within your department and the wider school. Keeping up to date with developments in the world of business is essential, as you use current examples to illustrate your teaching.

What Skills Do You Need to Be a Business Studies Teacher?

As well as excellent subject knowledge, it helps if you have contacts with people within the business world, to bring your teaching to life. A desire to support and inspire young people is essential, as well as good organisational and communication skills. Teachers are continually developing, so the ability to self-reflect and the willingness to take on new learning and training is also beneficial.

What Do We Cover in Business Studies Teacher Training?

The PGCE Secondary Business Education with QTS is designated 14-19. This means that you will be trained to teach Business Education and will be assessed against the Teachers’ Standard at Key Stage 4 and Key Stage 5 across the 14-19 age range. You will have experience of teaching at Key Stage 3 but will not be assessed against the Teachers’ Standards at this Key Stage.

This includes training in university, via STSA’s professional learning courses, and as part of your school placements, as detailed below:

At University

Our academic partner is Sheffield Hallam University, whose course is rated as ‘Good’ by Ofsted. At university, you will have the opportunity to develop and reflect on your subject knowledge and pedagogy in secondary business education. This will take place via seminars, workshops, lectures, group work, directed tasks, written assessments and practical work. Throughout the course, you will be encouraged to critically reflect on your progress, and academic and professional review tutorials will be used to support your development.

In STSA Professional Learning Courses

We run a number of STSA professional learning sessions throughout the year. These days are a great opportunity for our trainees to come together, catch up and share their experiences. Our trainees tell us this is a highly valued part of our course.

Examples of topics covered include:

• The Professional Teacher
• Safeguarding
• Lesson/scheme design
• Assessment: marking and feedback
• Data collection and analysis
• Barriers to learning
• Organisation of self
• Knowledge of consecutive key stages
• Role of SENCO
• Behaviour management
• Building resilience
• Child development
• SEND and inclusion
• EAL and new arrivals
• Collaborative team teaching
• Communication with parents
• Planning for transition
• Careers

The STSA team are on hand throughout the course to help you with any issues or questions you may have.

During your School Placements

Our course includes high-quality placements in two of our partner schools, providing experience in contrasting settings – which is part of the Department for Education (DfE) regulations for Initial Teacher Training (ITT). Your main placement is approximately 24 weeks over the academic year, whilst your complementary placement is approximately 6 weeks.

You will have your own mentor in each school, who will meet with you regularly and provide support and advice. They will also assess your teaching in school.

You can find out more about what to expect on our course here.

Career Development

You will always be developing as a teacher and could progress to a head of subject role, or even head of a department or faculty. Some teachers decide to specialise in pastoral work, taking on a head of key stage/year group role. From middle management, you could then progress into senior leadership as an assistant, deputy or head teacher. With multi-academy trusts growing in number, there are also new opportunities working across a number of schools, taking on responsibility for your particular subject.