New specification for A Level Business

We are pleased to announce that our new A Level Business (H436) qualification is now accredited for first teaching in September 2026.

Our updated A Level Business qualification is designed to help you build your students’ business knowledge and skills, preparing them for their next steps. It offers everything from modern content to accessible assessments. It also comes with comprehensive support, including a free digital student book from Cambridge.

From September 2026, you must teach the new A Level specification. The new A Level Business (H436) specification will be first examined in summer 2028.

Withdrawal of AS and A Level Business H031/H431

Due to low demand, we will stop offering an AS Level in Business after the next academic year. Our new AS Level Business (H036) qualification will not be resubmitted for accreditation.

The final assessment opportunity for the current qualifications, AS Level Business (H031) and A Level Business (H431), will be summer 2027.

There will be no resit opportunity for students taking the AS Level Business (H031) after its final assessment opportunity.

Students wishing to resit the A Level Business (H431) qualification after its final assessment opportunity will need to take the new A Level Business (H436) qualification.

What has changed in the new specification?

We’ve made some changes to our content and the new specification includes topics that are engaging and relevant to young people, such as recruitment, training, development and sustainability.

Some of the other improvements include:

• simplified specification – our new specification is shorter, structured clearly into topics and easier to navigate.
• greater focus on modern business – we’re keeping our most popular topics while introducing new, contemporary content around sustainability, work-life balance and the customer experience.
• more accessible assessment, including:
  • more multiple choice questions
  • a formulae booklet available for use during the exams
  • changes to question tariffs, with a highest tariff of 14 marks
  • clearer exam language with refined command words
  • shorter case studies embedded within the exam papers
  • repeated paper structure across exams to reduce cognitive load
  • each paper focuses on different content with synoptic assessment only in the final paper.

We believe that these changes will help create a positive business experience for all students.

How we are supporting you

Resources

Together with our publisher partners and online providers, we’re confident you’ll have all the support you need.

To help you navigate the new specification, we will also create and share:

• detailed assessment guides and annotated sample assessment material
• curriculum planners and schemes of work to support with planning and delivery
• free teacher guides and teaching resources to support delivery
• learning resources from third parties and publishers
• Active Results: our free results analysis service to help you review the performance of individual students or whole school
• ExamBuilder: our free question-building platform that helps you to build your own tests as our bank of past live-series questions grow.

As well as this, we’re offering all schools and colleges teaching the new specification access to a free site licence for a digital student book from Cambridge. You can also purchase print versions of the student book, if required. 

Free webinars

We’re running a series of free 30-minute Introducing our new A Level Business webinars, giving you the perfect opportunity to explore the new qualification.

Join us to learn more about the specification, assessments and support available. You’ll also have the chance to ask questions.

Any questions?

We’ve developed some FAQs to help with common queries. However, if you’d prefer to speak to someone, we’d be happy to help. Please call our Customer Support Centre on 01223 553998 (and select option 3) or you can email our Business Subject Advisor team at business@ocr.org.uk.

Qualifications

• Business - H436 (from 2026)
• Business - H031, H431 (from 2015)