M&S is offering 1,000 ‘graduate-style’ training places for 18 to 24-year-olds in stores, with no degree required.
The new ‘Not Just Any Career’ scheme aims to help candidates build the skills and confidence needed for a career in retail, according to M&S. It follows the publication in May of a government-commissioned report by former cabinet minister Alan Milburn which found roughly one in eight young people in the UK were not in education, employment or training (NEET), with the number forecast to rise to one in six by 2030.
M&S’s new programme will provide trainee roles aimed at developing leadership skills and providing a pathway into a long-term retail career.
Participants will receive six months of training, focused on practical retail management skills, confidence-building and hands-on experience. Successful participants will get the opportunity for further training to become a store manager.
Places are available in stores across the UK and Ireland, and both current M&S employees and external candidates can apply.
The scheme opens for applications on 27 July and placements will be made throughout the year on a rolling basis over the next 18 months.
“Retail is one of the few careers where you can start young, learn fast, lead teams early and build an incredible future through hard work and ambition,” said M&S retail director Thinus Keeve.
“We want more young people to see retail not just as a first job, but as a career with real opportunity, real responsibility and real progression.
“You do not need a degree to succeed here. You need attitude, energy, resilience and the willingness to learn. This programme is about opening doors for the next generation and giving talented young people the chance to thrive.”
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In a recent blog, M&S CEO Stuart Machin lamented the decline of the traditional Saturday job, having started his own career pushing trolleys at a supermarket aged 16. “A Saturday job can change a young person’s life,” he said. “I know, because it transformed mine. But when I think about the challenges facing young people today, I worry that many won’t have the same opportunity.”
He said new regulation was making it harder for employers to offer such roles and at risk of “not only disincentivising the Saturday job, but banning it”.
Machin has also frequently criticised the Apprenticeship Levy for failing to recognise the practical skill development needed in retail.
Keeve said: “As Stuart has argued, retail is the engine of the everyday economy and there is no better place to start than on the shop floor.”
M&S’s new Not Just Any Career scheme will run alongside its existing employment programme, Marks & Start, which has helped more than 14,000 people into work over 20 years, according to the retailer.
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