Philip Green’s idea for a retail academy could be the start of a major shift in recruitment policy, says Simon Howard
Hats off to Philip Green, who has announced his intention to form a Retail Academy. Green has become increasingly fed up by what he perceives as the “lack of talent” - particularly from the graduate population - so he plans to offer 200 16 to 18-year-olds an alternative to university. And you can understand why.
For a start, retail employers who still chase after undergraduates find they are conducting a pretty futile exercise, as only a third of university finalists bothered to look for a job on the milk round during 2004, and of those only 4% were interested in a career in retailing.
Okay, one reason for this year’s undergraduates not bothering with the university milk round is that they had every reason to be confident that, with a buoyant jobs market, they could wait until they graduated before starting to look.
But the fact is that the proportion of undergraduates who are looking for a job has been falling steadily since 1999.
Indeed, when you think about the increasingly large financial debts many of them shoulder (with repayments that kick in just as soon as they start earning decent money), coupled with the prospect of having to work until at least the age of 70 because of the pensions deficit, it’s pretty understandable that, once they graduate, they should want to take some time out to have fun before becoming fully paid-up members of the rat race.
But even if they do want to start their careers later, retail is still pretty low in their priorities. Added to that, retailers themselves don’t make it particularly easy for the young and ambitious to find a door marked ‘in’ where they can expect to start a career - and be given the training to go with it.
Look at the career websites of the major retailers and it’s easy to find their formal graduate schemes. But what if you’re not fresh out of university and just want a good start in life and some decent training? As you will soon find, it’s not so easy.
Green’s approach will be to try to persuade young people not to bother with university in the first place - for which I admit I have some considerable sympathy.
He will have to tread carefully, however, if he is not to be painted by Guardian-reading beardies as attempting to deprive bright young people of a university education.
But 16 to18-year-olds can justifiably wonder whether struggling for sparkling A level grades - and so ensuring a university place - is really worth the effort.
What if, instead, employers were to offer them the chance to work and study for a professional qualification at the same time?
For a start, they might be able to earn £15,000 per annum over those three years when their counterparts will be at university. So not only could they earn, say, £45,000, they would also not rack up a debt of more than £20,000 (which is what your average student will be looking at when tuition fees fully kick in).
Earnings of £45,000 and no debt of £20,000 to pay off? Sounds like a degree could cost £65,000.
Of course it’s not that simple, but what Green has spotted is a real opportunity for retailers to be more innovative about how they bring young people into the industry.
The key for retailers must be greater flexibility in offering a wider range of entry points to a broader range of people - and making sure everyone has access to what’s on offer and knows how to apply.
It’s also true that the successful employers at the top of the class know this already but the dunces still have a lot to learn - which brings me neatly to Sainsbury’s.
I was fascinated, although not totally surprised, to see a girl walk into my local Sainsbury’s (in central London) on a Saturday and ask for an application form, only to be told, “We haven’t got any, you’ll have to go down the Job Centre on Monday.”
“So will you?” I asked the would-be applicant.
“No,” she said. “I’m at college - and anyway I got one at Tesco, so I’ll just apply to them.”
Nuff said.
n Simon Howard is a founder of Work Communications and writes the Jobfile column for the Sunday Times
Hats off to Philip Green, who has announced his intention to form a Retail Academy. Green has become increasingly fed up by what he perceives as the “lack of talent” - particularly from the graduate population - so he plans to offer 200 16 to 18-year-olds an alternative to university. And you can understand why.
For a start, retail employers who still chase after undergraduates find they are conducting a pretty futile exercise, as only a third of university finalists bothered to look for a job on the milk round during 2004, and of those only 4% were interested in a career in retailing.
Okay, one reason for this year’s undergraduates not bothering with the university milk round is that they had every reason to be confident that, with a buoyant jobs market, they could wait until they graduated before starting to look.
But the fact is that the proportion of undergraduates who are looking for a job has been falling steadily since 1999.
Indeed, when you think about the increasingly large financial debts many of them shoulder (with repayments that kick in just as soon as they start earning decent money), coupled with the prospect of having to work until at least the age of 70 because of the pensions deficit, it’s pretty understandable that, once they graduate, they should want to take some time out to have fun before becoming fully paid-up members of the rat race.
But even if they do want to start their careers later, retail is still pretty low in their priorities. Added to that, retailers themselves don’t make it particularly easy for the young and ambitious to find a door marked ‘in’ where they can expect to start a career - and be given the training to go with it.
Look at the career websites of the major retailers and it’s easy to find their formal graduate schemes. But what if you’re not fresh out of university and just want a good start in life and some decent training? As you will soon find, it’s not so easy.
Green’s approach will be to try to persuade young people not to bother with university in the first place - for which I admit I have some considerable sympathy.
He will have to tread carefully, however, if he is not to be painted by Guardian-reading beardies as attempting to deprive bright young people of a university education.
But 16 to18-year-olds can justifiably wonder whether struggling for sparkling A level grades - and so ensuring a university place - is really worth the effort.
What if, instead, employers were to offer them the chance to work and study for a professional qualification at the same time?
For a start, they might be able to earn £15,000 per annum over those three years when their counterparts will be at university. So not only could they earn, say, £45,000, they would also not rack up a debt of more than £20,000 (which is what your average student will be looking at when tuition fees fully kick in).
Earnings of £45,000 and no debt of £20,000 to pay off? Sounds like a degree could cost £65,000.
Of course it’s not that simple, but what Green has spotted is a real opportunity for retailers to be more innovative about how they bring young people into the industry.
The key for retailers must be greater flexibility in offering a wider range of entry points to a broader range of people - and making sure everyone has access to what’s on offer and knows how to apply.
It’s also true that the successful employers at the top of the class know this already but the dunces still have a lot to learn - which brings me neatly to Sainsbury’s.
I was fascinated, although not totally surprised, to see a girl walk into my local Sainsbury’s (in central London) on a Saturday and ask for an application form, only to be told, “We haven’t got any, you’ll have to go down the Job Centre on Monday.”
“So will you?” I asked the would-be applicant.
“No,” she said. “I’m at college - and anyway I got one at Tesco, so I’ll just apply to them.”
Nuff said.
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