A2 ICT (Applied) Single Award

ICT (Applied) Single Award
This Applied 'A' Level as a course will give you a wide range of skills. The idea is to empower you to use ICT in an imaginative and professional way. We aim to give a range of the ICT skills that modern day employers demand, from traditional business functions such as data crunching using spreadsheets and databases to more creative tasks such as marketing with DTP and web-authoring. The course will give a solid and broad based grounding that will support your other subjects, increase your employability and higher education potential. This successful course has consistently had our students doing significantly better than national average based on their school GCSE results.

Lessons are all delivered in an ICT room in a relaxed yet purposeful environment. We aim to make lessons as enjoyable as possible, giving you opportunities to explore your full potential, work with others in the class and occasionally present your work to others. There is only one exam in the two years. The rest of the assessment is done through coursework, assessing what you have actually done in your portfolio.

What Will I Learn on This Course

You will learn:

• About professional business use of ICT
• How to be creative in design and implementation
• How to think laterally and solve problems
• To build your confidence in yourself and your abilities
• how to test and evaluate the work you've done

Course Content and Method of Assessment

Year 1; AS Level

Using ICT to Communicate
In this mandatory unit you will learn to use software to create business documents such as mail merge letters, web-sites, invoices and posters.

How Organisations use ICT
This unit is a study of how an organisation uses ICT. You will see how ICT if effectively used and research how it can be better used. This is the only unit with an exam.

ICT Solutions for Individuals and Society
In essence, this unit is about gathering data, processing it to find meaningful new information and presenting your results.

Year 2: Full 'A' Level (A2)

Working to a Brief
A team working project in which your team will create a solution for a business, this could be a web-site, a multimedia product, some digital artwork, DTP or a spreadsheet application.

Interactive Multimedia Products
Primarily using Flash you will create a stand alone multimedia product. This may be an interactive user guide, children's book, advertising creation, learning activity or game.

Developing and Creating Websites
You will learn about key design principles then create a HTML based presentational web-site for a client, using primarily Dreamweaver and Fireworks.

After the Course

On the completion of this course you will have an 'A'Level ICT qualification that will enable you to move into higher education or employment related to ICT. An Applied GCE in ICT will also support careers that do not have ICT as their main focus. Previously our students have gone onto:

• ICT related employment and apprenticeships
• ICT related degrees, such as Business Information Systems, Multimedia and Game Design
• Non ICT related degrees such as Law and Mathematics

Subject Combinations

Single Award Applied GCE ICT is particularly suitable to combine with Business Studies, media Studies or Product Design. This course will fit well into most programmes.

Many students find the task-focused approach learning a nice change in their timetable, from other classes that may involve more listening, note-taking and exam preparation.

Entry Requirements

Students are expected to have a minimum of five GCSEs grades A* to C as well as enthusiasm and commitment. Grade C in English is desirable, but you do not need a GCSE in ICT.