Faculty News

Studying Business at Mazenod College

Students at Mazenod are always encouraged to follow their passions and challenge themselves when it comes to subject choices. The popularity of our Business Studies subjects tells us that understanding the business world is a passion for many of our young men.

Students are given the opportunity from year 10 to begin their Business journey through our Commerce subjects and in year 11 they can follow this path by choosing VCE VET Small Business Operations or VCE Business Management. Both pathways can be continued at year 12.

VCE VET Small Business Operations

The course is completed over 2 years and graduates will be able to meet the current and future industry requirements to work effectively within small business contexts across a range of industry sectors with the skills, knowledge, and attributes to:

• support safe and sustainable small business operations.
• support the daily financial management of small business operations.
• demonstrate elementary professional skills and approaches to engage in small business contexts.
• apply effective communication, creative thinking, and problem-solving techniques to underpin co-operative relationships between stakeholders within a small business context.
• support the implementation and review of innovation and change within a small business context.

Students not only study current business theory and develop an understanding of how successful business’s run, but they also have the opportunity to apply this learning in real time and understand the challenges faced by small business owners in Australia.

In the unit ‘VU22520 Contribute to small business operations and innovation’ students worked with a small business of their choosing to interview the owner, audit the business and suggest improvements to the operations and/or innovations for the business. This real-world, hands-on activity gave students an opportunity to communicate professionally with business owners and form invaluable networks that can be utilised in the future. Our budding entrepreneurs are well on the way to making their mark in the business world.

For ‘VU22525 Assist with the presentation of public activities and events’ students were tasked with running a stall for Mission Action Day. They had to come up with different business ideas, weigh up the pros and cons in relation to their objectives and their target market, assess the risks and problem solve solutions and finally then run the stall. The success of the day was in no small part due to the professionalism displayed by the young men running their businesses on the day.

VCE Business Management

This popular VCE subject is also completed over 2 years and gives students a theoretical understanding of the management of business of all sizes, from both profit and not for profit sectors. Students work through the whole business development process at year 11 beginning with the business idea, business planning, legal and financial requirements, marketing and staffing decisions.

At year 12 students dig deeper into foundations of successful businesses; examining the varied objectives held by organisations, effective management styles and how positive corporate culture is built in successful businesses. The Human Resource function is explored to give an understanding of motivation theory and performance management. The Operations function gives students an understanding of the complexity of the production of both goods and services. Finally, change management theory is explored and applied to contemporary business change.

Early in Term 2 the Year 12 Business classes visited the Yakult factory in Dandenong South. The tour moved through the whole facility giving students the opportunity to witness the entire manufacturing process and find the connections between the textbook and the real-world application. The tour concluded with a taste test of the final product and students left with a wealth of knowledge of how an operations process works. 

Across our business and commerce subjects, which also include Accounting, Economics and Legal Studies, we are always looking for opportunities to enrich our students learning. If you are keen to share the story of your business success or provide insight into any of the topics highlighted in the article, we’d love to hear from you. 

Brooke Sullivan

Head of Commerce