Mr Marcus McGowan MSc PgDip BA (Hons)

This Business Education Learning Blog is aimed primarily at Higher Business Management students/teachers and ICT students/teachers.

The aim of this blog is to provide you with interesting articles, news, trivia as well as resources or links to materials which will help in your course of study.

I am a Teacher of Business Education and I have written for Education Scotland and BBC Bitesize.

If you'd like to contact me please click on the link to: email me

Sunday 26 April 2009

Exams 2009

FYI:

The Exam Diet for 2009 is as follows

5th May - Standard Grade Administration

Foundation - 9am - 10am
General - 10.20am - 11.35am
Credit - 1pm - 2.30pm

18th May - Business Management Higher - 9am -11.30am

19th May - Business Management Int 2 - 9am - 10.45am

20th May - Administration Higher - Paper 1 (Theory) 9am - 10.20am, Paper 2 (ICT) 10.40am - 12 noon

Home study should be in overdrive by now. Remember even if you think you know it all, a little bit of extra studying helps.

Remember the COMMAND WORDS. Answer the flamin' question!!!

Good luck to everyone. It has been a pleasure to teach you all this year and for the senior pupils I hope you all are going to Prom as I look forward to our class photos together!!! Naturally I will show you up as I will need a fake tan and some hair care to get up to the standard of what is expected in these Beckhamesque days. Oh how I pine for the Cloughie era!!!

Go do your best in all your subjects and try to make the best account you can. I knwo it is a hard time in school, but you have to remember it is the same stresses and strains that every other schoolkid in Scotland is going through and they are your competition for uni and college places.

If I think you can get an A, then prove me right. If I think you will struggle, prove me wrong.

You may not believe this, but I would be so happy to be proved wrong. Everyone involved with Hamilton Grammar wish you all well. The best things in life are free and the sense of achievement when you do your best and your are rewarded is something you will never forget.

I salute you all.

Thursday 23 April 2009

The Budget


There we go another Budget from the Government and Alastair Darling, the Labour Chancellor of the Exchequer.


KEY POINTS IN THE BUDGET

1. 50% tax rate for earnings over £150,000
2. Big debt and deficit increases
3. Economy shrinks at record rate
4. Public spending squeeze planned
5. Books not balanced until 2018
6. 2p on fuel, 1p on a pint of beer and 7p on cigarettes
7. £15bn public sector 'efficiency savings'
8. Claw back tax relief on top earners' pension
9. £2bn help for young unemployed
10. £1bn to boost housing market
11. £2 ,000 car scrappage scheme

Source: BBC Business News

It looks like we are all going to pay for the collapse of the Global Banking System. Taxes will inevitably rise and public spending cuts. So I wonder what is the future for hospitals, schools, and the police, as well as every service provided by Local Authorities.


It is a huge gamble by Darling. He's borrowing money to use to offset the increasing unemployment rate we face. We just all hope it works!

Wednesday 22 April 2009

S1/S2 Enterprise Group

Our junior entrepreneurs now at long last have a company name... Market Matters, as voted by 27% of the 79 people who cast their vote.

Before we start ordering our stock, their next job is to create a company logo and assign job roles.

Our senior Enterprise people are going to judge the best logo!

Young Enterprise Examinations 2009

Congratulations to the following pupils:

Danny Gray
Kyle Jeffrey
Edison McKenna
Fraser Porteous

who all passed the Young Enterprise Examination.

Kyle received a Credit pass.

All four of the pupils have contributed greatly throughout the year. Well done!

Friday 3 April 2009

From Woolies to Wellies

In Dorchester, an ex-manager of the failed Woolworths brand has created a phoenix from the ashes, documented in a show on BBC 1 last night.

Claire Robertson re-employed all the axed Woolies staff and renamed it Wellworths. She changed the stock a bit - with help from a new buyer who was obssessed with picture frames - and changed the look of the store slightly. She axed the poor selling CDs and DVDs - which did not keep everyone happy - but it was a cold blooded business decision.

The famous pic and mix was still there for everyone to see. Claire got a £100,000 loan and an agreement with her landlord for 3 months. The Wellworths store had a target of £38,000 sales to make every week in order to keep the business solvent.

Under huge time pressure the store opened and Radio 2 DJ Chris Evans did the honours - giving Claire and her shop well wearned national publicity.

Who knows how long the store will remain open in these troubling times of recession but good luck to Claire and her team. There was something about Woolworths that we all liked even if we didn't always shop there.

In the News...

G20 Summit

Barack Obama has hailed the G20 summit as a historic turning point in the pursuit of world economic recovery.

Leaders pledged new spending and tougher financial regulations, in what the US leader called an unprecedented set of actions to ease the crisis.

He now heads to Strasbourg for talks with the French and German leaders, before a Nato summit begins.

RBS Axe Jobs

Royal Bank of Scotland expects to shed more jobs worldwide, the bank has said.
RBS has already announced that about 2,700 posts will go but "this will not be the end of the story", according to chairman Sir Philip Hampton.

He also called for an "end to the public flogging" of the bank over its past mistakes.
Directors of RBS will face shareholders at the bank's annual general meeting in Edinburgh where they will be rebuked over their pay and pensions policy.

Sir Philip will tell shareholders that more redundancies are expected, although it is too early to say how many jobs will go or where the cuts will be made.

In February RBS reported it made a loss of £24.1bn in 2008 - the largest annual loss in UK corporate history.


Trade-ins Boost German Car Sales

German car sales soared 40% in March compared with the same time a year ago, with a spate of buying encouraged by a trade-in plan to scrap old cars.

The VDA automobile federation said sales in March hit 401,000 vehicles.

In Germany, drivers get 2,500 euros (£2,220; $3,170) for trading in a car more than nine years old. The scheme will be phased out by the end of 2009.

The figures come a day after the US auto industry's monthly sales were 45% down on this time last year.

And South African new vehicle sales plunged by 30.1% in the year to March, industry figures there showed on Thursday.

EU Working Hours Dispute

The European Parliament and EU governments are starting a new round of talks aimed at resolving a dispute over the EU's Working Time Directive.

The UK and 14 other EU member states have an opt-out from the directive, objecting to the 48-hour limit it sets on the working week.

But in December members of the European Parliament voted to scrap the opt-out.
MEPs also say on-call time counts as working time. A decision on that would affect key sectors such as healthcare.

The current "conciliation" is the final stage in the legislative debate. Both sides have until May to thrash out a deal, and if none is reached the European Commission will have to present new legislative proposals.

Sources: BBC News

Wednesday 1 April 2009

S1 and S2 IT Course Review Pupil Vote

Please can you spare a few minutes to cast your vote on what you feel has been the best unit in S1 and S2.

For S1 votes go to:

www.s1it.blogspot.com

and for S2 go to:

www.s2it.blogspot.com

Your vote counts!

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