Food and fibre: Economics and Business

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Economics and Business

The Australian Curriculum addresses learning about food and fibre predominantly in Design and Technologies and F-6/7HASS/Geography, however there are opportunities to make connections with aspects of Economics and Business in some years.

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Year 9

Knowledge and understanding

Content descriptions with elaborations:

Australia as a trading nation and its place within the rising economies of Asia and broader global economy (ACHEK038)

  • identifying participants in the Australian economy including household, business, finance, government and foreign sectors
  • explaining the objectives of the Australian economy to satisfy needs and wants through the production and distribution of goods and services
  • exploring Australia’s interdependence with other economies (for example by identifying Australia’s major trading partners in the Asia region and the items of trade)

Why and how participants in the global economy are dependent on each other (ACHEK039)

  • brainstorming the ways that consumers, producers, workers and governments interact with other economies
  • mapping the global supply chain for a product to identify the participants in the chain

The nature of innovation and how and why businesses seek to create and maintain a competitive advantage in the market, including the global market (ACHEK041)

  • identifying the reasons businesses seek to build or create a competitive advantage (for example to meet the changing demands of a competitive global market and improve their profit margins)
  • investigating the different strategies businesses use to create competitive advantage (for example research and development, offering a lower-cost product, or by implementing efficient internal operations strategies)
     

Year 10

Knowledge and understanding

Content descriptions with elaborations:

Indicators of economic performance and how Australia’s economy is performing (ACHEK050)

  • investigating the performance of the Australian economy using key indicators and explaining fluctuation using phases of the business cycle

The ways businesses respond to changing economic conditions and improve productivity through organisational management and workforce management (ACHEK054)

  • describing ways in which businesses can improve productivity (for example, training, capital investment, investment in applications of technology, use of just-in-time inventory systems)
  • exploring ways businesses structure their working environment to provide flexible, efficient approaches (for example, horizontal (flat) or vertical (tall) organisational structures)
  • exploring the use of technology and the extent to which it has driven and allowed innovative responses by business
  • investigating ways that businesses have responded to improving economic conditions (for example, increasing their research and development funding to create innovative products, adjusting marketing strategies to expand their market share, upskilling their workforce to improve productivity)