Business Studies

Business education - Leisure and tourism

Year 10

Pupils at the City of Ely Community College study five 60-minute lessons over a two week period in mixed ability classes.  In the first term of year 10, pupils have the opportunity to study and take their first externally assessed 1-hour examination.

Leisure and Tourism is an applied subject at GCSE, which is concerned with people’s changing leisure activities and travel behaviour, the destinations that people visit and changes in patterns of tourism, including the issues of impact and sustainability that they raise.

GCSE Leisure and Tourism also covers the study of leisure and tourism organisations – the businesses which make up the leisure and tourism industries.  Promotion and sales activities, working in leisure and tourism, and health and safety issues faced by leisure and tourism organisations are all included.

AQA GCSE Leisure and Tourism offers pupils the opportunity to do the following in both external and controlled assessments:

• know and understand about leisure and tourism activities and provision in the UK and abroad

• gain skills in applying their knowledge and understanding to real-world situations, including in planning and carrying out investigations

• learn to analyse and evaluate evidence and sources, to make reasoned judgements and to draw conclusions.

The GCSE Award covers all the criteria for the subject as laid down by QCA.

The GCSE Double Award provides pupils with the additional chance to investigate and learn about leisure and tourism organisations in more detail.

Autumn term

Unit 1 – Understanding Leisure and Tourism Destinations

Unit 1 is intended to provide pupils with a broad knowledge and understanding of leisure and tourism destinations. 

Leisure and tourism destinations are the places people travel to:

•           so that they can take part in leisure activities there, or

•           so they can stay there for a holiday, on business or to visit friends and relatives.

Pupils will learn about:

•           the range of leisure and tourism destinations in the UK and abroad: resorts, city destinations and National Parks

•           visitor attractions in the UK and abroad and the activities they offer, including how these appeal to different visitor types

•           the methods (modes) of travel available to leisure and tourism destinations and attractions and why people choose them

•           the range of impacts leisure and tourism can have on communities and on the environment, the importance of sustainability in leisure and tourism and the meaning and aims of ecotourism.

Throughout Unit 1 pupils will need to be able to describe the following examples of tourist destinations and use them to demonstrate  knowledge and understanding of this unit for their external assessment:

Pupils have the opportunity to take part in trips organised by the department to help develop the knowledge and understanding required for this unit.  Trips organised in the Autumn Term are to Ely Cathedral, Cromwell House, Ely Museum, Hunstanton, Wicken Fen and The Natural History Museum in London.

COURSE STRUCTURE

Year 11

Pupils at the City of Ely Community College studied three 60-minute lessons in year 10 and will study two 60-minute lessons this year.  This course has been designed to provide a broad education as a foundation both for training leading to employment, and for further and higher education.

The fundamental philosophy of this specification is that, in order to understand the nature of Leisure and Tourism pupils must actively experience the Leisure and Tourism environment. Therefore, the AQA GCSE in Leisure and Tourism (Double Award) has been designed to:

• introduce pupils to work related learning
• provide pupils with an overview of the sector
• give pupils the technical knowledge, skills and understanding associated with the subject at these levels
• equip pupils with some of skills they will need in the workplace or in further education or training
• empower pupils to take charge of their own learning and development
• provide a range of teaching, learning and assessment styles to motivate pupils to achieve the best they can.

Assessment is designed to give credit for what pupils can do as well as what they know.  It is based both on portfolio evidence and an external assessment, which is set and marked by AQA.

The aims of the specification are to encourage pupils to:

• develop an understanding of how leisure and tourism organisations operate as businesses
• acquire knowledge and understanding of UK travel and tourism activities and destinations
• develop an understanding of how people spend their leisure time
• develop an understanding of how the leisure industry meets people’s needs
• develop an understanding of why people travel, and how the tourism industry meets their needs
• develop an understanding of employment possibilities in leisure and tourism
• develop an understanding of how leisure and tourism organisations market the products and services they offer
• develop an understanding of the importance of customer service in leisure and tourism organisations.

Autumn term

Unit 3 – Customer Service in Leisure and Tourism

Unit 3 is a portfolio based investigation of the customer service provided by a selected leisure and tourism organisation.  In this unit pupils will find out why customer service is so important in leisure and tourism. Pupils will learn about:

• the different needs of customers and how they are met
• the importance of personal presentation when dealing with customers
• responding to dissatisfied customers
• why it is important to keep customer records

Pupils will also practise the skills and techniques needed for giving customer service. They will consider the benefits to organisations, their staff and customers of providing excellent customer service.  They will be encouraged to view customer service from the perspective of the organisation and should not merely focus on their experiences as customers.

This unit builds on the introductory work they completed in Unit 1
(Investigating leisure and tourism) and links well with Unit 2 (Marketing in leisure and tourism).

Pupils will be encouraged to take part in a work experience placement, in a leisure and tourism organisation, to allow them to collect a proportion of the evidence required for the Unit 3 portfolio. This should be seen as good practice and pupils will recognise that they will not necessarily be able to collect all of the information required during the course of the placement.  Because of this, opportunities will be provided for pupils to practice further skills and collect evidence through role-play exercises.

COURSE STRUCTURE