Study Skills for Higher Education: An Individual Report on Business

This individual report evaluates the study skills taught in a business foundation course designed to equip students with fundamental business knowledge in areas like marketing, finance, accounting, and operations. It emphasizes understanding external factors, decision-making, and customer satisfaction. The report highlights key skills such as understanding economic fluctuations, marketing proficiency, accounting expertise, positioning strategies, customer satisfaction techniques, decision-making processes, and effective time management. These skills are crucial for success in leading businesses and addressing organizational challenges. The foundation year is shown to improve public speaking, communication, and management abilities, ultimately preparing students for advanced topics and practical business applications.

Study skill for higher
education assessment
Individual Report

Abstract
Business foundation course allows students to learn basic dynamics of business
competitiveness and core business skills in marketing, finance, accounting and operations
skills which can be used to commence or improve the business. The dominant explanation
for this course allow the students to have a close understanding external factors, decision
making skills and customer satisfaction skills. It analysed from the report that some skills are
needed to drive real results in the leading businesses to enact real change and bring solutions
to the challenges faced by the organisation. Findings from the report indicates that foundation
year assists in improving the public speaking skills, communication skills and management
abilities.

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................................2
Analysis and discussion of questions.........................................................................................2
1. Seven key skills which are commonly taught and important for students .......................2
CONCLUSION..........................................................................................................................4
REFERENCES..........................................................................................................................5

INTRODUCTION
This report is going to evaluate the study skills for higher education which are taught in the
course of business foundation to help the students to study more effectively and achieving
higher results. In business foundation course, the student will get to learn about the
fundamentals of the accounting, decision making, marketing, finance strategy to tackle the
real business issues. Its main focus is to help students to master the skills which are required
to analyse the financial statements. It will further explain that how an individual can
develop basic literacy in this course by taking the specialization, one can start a business or
continue with the education which will help in learning the fundamentals of accounting and
marketing.
Analysis and discussion of questions
1. Seven key skills which are commonly taught and important for students
As a learner, students play an active role in the education. Business foundation course allow
the students to acquire versatile skills which considers academic knowledge, ethical values,
language skills and many others. Education plays a vital role in the overall development of
students because it plays a prominent role in the modern era of the global world for the
betterment of society. Seven key skills are explained below-
A close understanding of economic fluctuations and external factors- External factors
plays a major role in the growth of business which leads to increase the profitability for firms
and also encourages firm to take risks and innovate. Ultimately, growth creates wealth which
improves overall well-being so that people can earn higher profits and spend more money to
improve their standard of living. With the help of the business foundation course students
learn to ascertain the various types of external factors which affects the business operations,
revenue and personnel ( Rossi and et.al.,2020).
Marketing skill- Under this skill, the students get to learn about the key principles of
market strategies to interpret the drivers that influence customers. Marketing is a key
component to make any business successful. Many businesses ignore this point which is a
huge mistake as marketing boosts the sales and profitability of the business. For example,
digital advertising, customer knowledge, problem solving, critical analysis, writing skills,
SEO (search engine optimization) and many others (Freeman, Parmar and Martin, 2020).

Accounting skill- Students learn about the various technical skills which are required to
evaluate the accounting standards. With the help of this course, the student get to learn about
the three most common financial statements that are the income statement, balance sheet and
cash flow statement (Nghia, 2018). It allows to examine the complex financial data as well as
also facilitates the same to communicate their finding to the concerned clients in a concise
manner. This further helps in elevating numerical skills to demonstrate the ability to
understand the numerical information and formulate and implement meaningful decisions
(Jia, 2020).
Positioning skill- The business foundation course helps the students to learn about the
product or service in the market place because the positioning skill aids to know about the
product in relation to the similar product of the marketplace. The good positioning technique
makes the product different from other brands and it allows flexibility to the company in
order to bring changes in adverting, distribution and extensions. Positioning is a necessary
tool for effective planning of the business activities because it creates the image of the
product in the mind of the consumers and highlights the benefits of their product as
compared to other products. Marketers should keep an eye on the market's competition while
focusing on the positioning elements which will convey the message to customers why this
company's product are better and preferred over the competitor's product (Beynon-Davies,
2019).
Customer Satisfaction skill- Business foundation helps the students to understand about the
customer satisfaction skill which is a tool to measure how happy or unhappy the customers
are with the company's product, services, and experiences. In a business when the customers
are satisfied that will help in retaining more customers then it will enhance the sales and
sustainability ( Fonstad, and Mocker, 2020). It can be improved by listening to customers
and figuring out what's working out for them or not, various surveys can also be conducted to
improve the areas towards the common goal of improving the customer's satisfaction (Boone,
Kurtz and Berston 2019).
Decision making Skill- In every business, decision-making process helps in taking the
decisions by individuals to choose the best option to meet the requirements of the desired
goals. It is a set of steps taken by the management to determine the best and specific path for
the initiatives. This skill is learnt in this course which helps the students to lead effective

decision-making practice in a workplace. Decision making Skill allows to take a well-
informed decision which will assist in becoming more productive which will save the time
and help in making more productive (Beynon-Davies, 2019).Various skills which are
considered for proper decision-making are problem solving, flexibility, analytical thinking,
investigation, active listening , ability to adjust and time management (Heald, 2018).
Effective time management and self-motivation- This skill allows the students to know
how to tick task off from the to-do list and manage the time. Time management is essential at
work which enhance the performance of an individual to achieve desired goals with less
efforts and more effective plans. Proper time management and self-motivation can result into
improvement in professional reputation, better relationship at work and less stress. Proper
time management and self-motivation can benefit to reduce procrastination, achieve goals
faster, boosts the confidence, overcome negative influences, overcome petty indecisiveness,
gives more strength overall, breaks the tasks into smaller, more efficiency and productivity
( Mayer, 2018).
CONCLUSION
On the basis of above report, it has been concluded that business foundation course is an
essential program designed for students Students can develop their understanding towards
business culture and practices to learn academic environment. The business foundation
course will include the different aspects such as communication, international business
practise and strategies for business success. The students are required to acquire set of skills
if they want to work in the field of business. Foundation year helps in improving the public
speaking skills, management abilities and communication skills. Such skills and courses
further helps the students to develop a new level of understanding of advanced topics. It
explained different skills which can be gained with the help of business foundation course
such as marketing strategy, accounting, financial accounting and customer satisfaction.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Beynon-Davies, P., 2019. Business information systems. Red Globe Press.
Boone, L.E., Kurtz, D.L. and Berston, S., 2019. Contemporary business. John Wiley & Sons.
Freeman, R.E., Parmar, B.L. and Martin, K., 2020. BUSINESS AND ETHICS (pp. 129-140).
Columbia University Press.
Heald, M., 2018. The social responsibilities of business: Company and community, 1900-
1960. Routledge.
Jia, L.V., 2020. Discussion on the Teaching Mode of Innovative Entrepreneurship Course
Based on OBE Concept——Take the Course of Business Foundation and Practice as an
Example. The Theory and Practice of Innovation and Enntrepreneurship, 3(1), p.115.
Mayer, C., 2018. Prosperity: Better business makes the greater good. Oxford University
Press.
Beynon-Davies, P., 2019. Business information systems. Red Globe Press.
Fonstad, N. and Mocker, M., 2020. Munich Re: Building a foundation for innovating digital
offerings (No. 445). MIT Center for Information Systems Research.
Nghia, T.L.H., 2018. External stakeholders’ roles and factors influencing their participation
in developing generic skills for students in Vietnamese universities. Journal of Education
and Work, 31(1), pp.72-86.
Rossi, E., Bertassini, A.C., dos Santos Ferreira, C., do Amaral, W.A.N. and Ometto, A.R.,
2020. Circular economy indicators for organizations considering sustainability and business
models: Plastic, textile and electro-electronic cases. Journal of Cleaner Production, 247,
p.119137.