A new buying qualification will provide essential skills for buyers that current training fails to deliver. Fiona McLelland reports
The skill of buyers is absolutely critical to the ongoing profitability of any retail business, yet there are vital knowledge gaps that are not being filled by current training, claims a study by Skillsmart.
The retail skills council is aiming to put this right and hopes that by the end of the summer retailers will be able to base their training and development on a National Occupational Standard (NOS).
The only qualification available at present is the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply professional qualification, which only a few buyers choose to study.
Beverley Paddey, head of workforce development at Skillsmart, predicts: “In the past retail buyers have been lumped in with procurement officers and for many years we have been saying that this is just not suitable.
“The first step was to prove that the procurement qualifications were not suitable, and now that bit has been done we really have to focus on developing a set of standards that will benefit retailers.
“We will be working directly with employers to take our feasibility study forward and develop what’s right for retailers. For the first time the knowledge and skills that buyers need to be fully competent at their jobs will be mapped out.”
The feasibility study was set up after retail chief executives and HR managers complained to Skillsmart that there was a lack of buyers coming through with the right skills to hit the deck running.
The study involved retailers, including Spar and Asda, from all sectors and was completed in November. It showed that new buyers coming into the job, perhaps having studied retail at university, had a lack of commercial awareness and low technical and financial awareness.
It also found that internal and external training and development for buyers on the job did exist but questioned its usefulness for employees. Training focused on generic management skills, such as negotiation, people management and communication, rather than specific aspects of buying and merchandising.
Skillsmart would like to see the new skills standards influence the training and development needs of new and experienced buyers alike.
Training areas included in the NOS draft cover the manufacturing process and how to bridge the communication gap with suppliers; developing commercial nous to improve market awareness and appreciate the financial impact of a buying decision; and increasing awareness of trends to help develop creativity alongside analytical skills.
Philip Marchant, Spar UK’s corporate development director, welcomes the plans for a NOS for buyers and merchandisers. “This will be very useful for the retail trade - there is nothing like it at the moment. At Spar, we have no specific buyer training as we currently target any training on what the individual buyer needs at the time,” he says. “The NOS will be something that we will look at carefully when it comes out. It will depend on what is included in the training, but it is a really good start.”
Once the NOS has standardised buyer training throughout the retail sector, Skillsmart hopes to persuade learning providers to develop an institute of buyers that would provide a qualification for its members.
Paddey would like something comparable with the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development’s qualification, which is held in such high regard by the HR profession that it is impossible to progress up the ladder without it.
A chartered institute for buyers and merchandisers could be three years down the line, but Paddey says that creating the NOS is a good first step towards achieving that goal.
Marchant, who is a member of a chartered institute, agrees. “I know the value of an institute and it’s not just about qualifications. It can also be a great way to network and learn what’s going on in the industry,” he says.
The skill of buyers is absolutely critical to the ongoing profitability of any retail business, yet there are vital knowledge gaps that are not being filled by current training, claims a study by Skillsmart.
The retail skills council is aiming to put this right and hopes that by the end of the summer retailers will be able to base their training and development on a National Occupational Standard (NOS).
The only qualification available at present is the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply professional qualification, which only a few buyers choose to study.
Beverley Paddey, head of workforce development at Skillsmart, predicts: “In the past retail buyers have been lumped in with procurement officers and for many years we have been saying that this is just not suitable.
“The first step was to prove that the procurement qualifications were not suitable, and now that bit has been done we really have to focus on developing a set of standards that will benefit retailers.
“We will be working directly with employers to take our feasibility study forward and develop what’s right for retailers. For the first time the knowledge and skills that buyers need to be fully competent at their jobs will be mapped out.”
The feasibility study was set up after retail chief executives and HR managers complained to Skillsmart that there was a lack of buyers coming through with the right skills to hit the deck running.
The study involved retailers, including Spar and Asda, from all sectors and was completed in November. It showed that new buyers coming into the job, perhaps having studied retail at university, had a lack of commercial awareness and low technical and financial awareness.
It also found that internal and external training and development for buyers on the job did exist but questioned its usefulness for employees. Training focused on generic management skills, such as negotiation, people management and communication, rather than specific aspects of buying and merchandising.
Skillsmart would like to see the new skills standards influence the training and development needs of new and experienced buyers alike.
Training areas included in the NOS draft cover the manufacturing process and how to bridge the communication gap with suppliers; developing commercial nous to improve market awareness and appreciate the financial impact of a buying decision; and increasing awareness of trends to help develop creativity alongside analytical skills.
Philip Marchant, Spar UK’s corporate development director, welcomes the plans for a NOS for buyers and merchandisers. “This will be very useful for the retail trade - there is nothing like it at the moment. At Spar, we have no specific buyer training as we currently target any training on what the individual buyer needs at the time,” he says. “The NOS will be something that we will look at carefully when it comes out. It will depend on what is included in the training, but it is a really good start.”
Once the NOS has standardised buyer training throughout the retail sector, Skillsmart hopes to persuade learning providers to develop an institute of buyers that would provide a qualification for its members.
Paddey would like something comparable with the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development’s qualification, which is held in such high regard by the HR profession that it is impossible to progress up the ladder without it.
A chartered institute for buyers and merchandisers could be three years down the line, but Paddey says that creating the NOS is a good first step towards achieving that goal.
Marchant, who is a member of a chartered institute, agrees. “I know the value of an institute and it’s not just about qualifications. It can also be a great way to network and learn what’s going on in the industry,” he says.
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