It is vital that students leave school with a good level of commercial, financial, and legal literacy. Indeed, this is the key idea behind our Commerce course. As teenagers, students are already starting to participate in society as producers of goods and services, money managers and law-abiding citizens. The course is broken into two semester-length units of study.
Elective 1 - The Economy and Mind your Own Business
Elective 2 - The Law & Personal Money Management
Students are encouraged to select both semester length electives in Commerce to make up a whole year’s study. However, it is also possible for students to take only one of the two electives since each of these is a stand-alone study and assumes no previous knowledge.
There are good reasons why students should study Commerce. Indeed, our exciting Year 10 Commerce course has three general aims:
Firstly, the course aims to improve commerce literacy. It has been designed to cater for the needs of young people by helping them to develop a sound knowledge of and interest in personal business, financial and legal matters. By improving their understanding about credit, banking, economics, saving, budgeting, investing, basic bookkeeping, the operation of government, and the law, it is hoped that students will avoid some of the worries experienced by many in our community.
Secondly, the course aims to help students strengthen their academic skills. These skills include problem solving, organising, analysing, describing, communicating, decision-making, discussing and using computers.
Finally, the course hopes to cultivate a genuine interest in the area of Commerce. Having tasted Commerce at Year 10, it is hoped that many students will decide to continue their studies in this general area by taking VCE Accounting, Economics, and/ or Legal Studies at Years 11 and 12.
As in all subjects, the successful completion of Year 10 Commerce involves students adopting sound learning behaviours and being able to demonstrate important knowledge and skills.
There are two main areas making up this semester-length elective:
Area 1- The Economy & You
What is the economy and how does it affect my life?
Why is there just enough of everything?
How do governments and individuals interact to make everything work?
Does money really make the world go round?
Area of study 1 provides students with a general understanding of economic theory, issues and practical skills that will be relevant throughout life. It explores three topics and aims to introduce students to some fundamental economic concepts, expand their economic vocabulary and explore events in the past, present and future, with an economic mindset.
Topic 1- economic choices
Topic 2- influences on Australia’s economic conditions and our living standards
Topic 3- how buyers, sellers, and markets work to guide key economic decisions
While undertaking these three topics, students investigate how economic choices involve trade-offs that have both immediate and future consequences. They will be presented with the different tools and concepts used by economists to explain events in the past and use these to predict what might happen in the future. Specifically, they will engage with economic thinking that requires them to define, explain and give appropriate examples relating to:
distinctions between needs and wants
scarcity
opportunity costs
economic systems and models
measures of economic growth and decline
standards of living
the influences of demand, supply, prices and markets on how our resources are used
The investigation of these topics will occur in relation to consumers, businesses, and governments. It will also look at economic decisions made at a local, national, and global level.
Area 2- Planning and running your own Social Enterprise
Have you ever wondered what it would be like to set up and run a small business? This exciting area of study comprises two main topics. It offers students a hands-on experience of planning and then operating a small social enterprise business. As such, it explores 21st century skills of innovation and entrepreneurialism that are needed for business success.
Topic 1: Planning a social enterprise:
Students will realise the necessity of planning before operating a social enterprise and will undertake a number of activities to make important decisions relating to a business ‘start up’. These include:
implementing the SCAMPER method to assist with innovative thinking,
developing a Social Business Model Canvas as the framework or scaffold for a social enterprise,
creating a business plan and accessing subject area experts for feedback and review.
In creating a business plan, students must draw on a range of ICT applications.
Topic 2: Running the social enterprise:
The next step is that students will run a social enterprise on a daily basis, actually putting the ‘business plan’ into action. This area is certainly a very practical, hands-on affair. Amongst other things, students will:
start trading the selected product or service
keep a daily diary for recording their business-related activities
develop and keep financial or accounting records for the social enterprise and learn how to interpret these
undertake a personal evaluation of the success of the business
produce a comprehensive SWOT analysis and review of the experiences gained from operating a Social Enterprise.
There are three main areas of study making up this semester-length elective:
Area 1– living with the law
Using case studies, research and an excursion, this area of study involves an examination of some vital aspects of Australia’s legal system that teenagers should find both interesting and relevant. In particular, students will investigate:
the nature of laws and the reasons for having them in our society
where do laws come from
how laws are made in Australia
the principles of justice
the rights of citizens
the powers and activities of the police
Australia’s system of courts and the legal system
criminal law and civil law and their application
sentencing and the youth justice system
Area 2- personal budgeting
This area of study starts by looking at how you can better manage your personal finances. Using problem-solving strategies, students are challenged to create a personal budget that will allow them to set and achieve their financial goals and meet their financial commitments. This covers relevant issues like:
earning an income
saving
spending
personal budgeting (to meet financial goals)
Area 3- investment and financial planning
To help gain personal financial independence and enhance financial literacy, students investigate the nature of alternative avenues of investment and the creation of an investment portfolio that reflects their personal values. They are required to analyse various interesting investment opportunities in terms of basic considerations such as:
risk
returns
liquidity
taxation impacts
minimum amount
ethical considerations
convenience
There is also the expectation that students will be involved in the exciting ASX on-line Stock Market Game as a way of gaining some first-hand experience in the share market.
Year 10 Commerce courses seek to develop important academic skills such as expressing, interpreting and analysing commercial, financial, economic and legal information, applying commercial, financial and legal knowledge, concepts, models and skills to real or hypothetical situations, evaluating alternative proposals, solutions or ideas, gathering information from a range of sources, researching and communicating commercial, financial and legal information using different approaches, using ICT, and preparing and presenting reports.
Approaches used to enhance learning in Commerce
A wide range of interesting learning activities is used, and partly depends on the particular Commerce elective selected. For example:
an excursion (eg, to Geelong’s Magistrate’s Court)
case studies and scenarios
contact with a businessperson (eg, interview with a business owner)
relevant videos
experiential and hands-on learning
research tasks
business related surveys
ICT-based activities including internet research, preparing reports using Word, Excel and other programs
creating a business plan where you actually set up and run your own small social enterprise business
revision strategies and study techniques
student presentations to the class
group activities and individual work
simulated activities and games (e.g., the on-line Stock Market Game run by the ASX)
formative and summative assessment
real life problem-solving
making contact in the community with people in business
In Year 10 Commerce, assessment is both formative (i.e., during the completion of tasks) and summative (i.e., based on the completed task). Outcomes reflect a student’s academic habits and behaviours. In addition, they depend on the extent to which a student can demonstrate key knowledge and key skills.
More specifically, student assessment typically incorporates topic tests and the submission of completed learning activities (including exercises, group work, solving real life problems, ICT generated investigative research reports and other presentations), along with a semester examination.
For more detailed information, please click on the link/s below:
For more detailed information, please click on the link/s below:
Victorian Curriculum: The Humanities - About the Humanities - Victorian Curriculum (vcaa.vic.edu.au)
Australian Curriculum: Economics and Business | The Australian Curriculum
In the current absence of a suitable textbook, Business Studies staff have created their own learning resources. These will be made available at the start of the semester.