Last week was National Apprenticeship Week bringing together the whole of the apprenticeship community and BRC Learning were excited to be part of the celebration promoting apprenticeships in the retail industry. This year’s theme was Look Beyond and throughout the week we saw many fantastic opportunities that an apprenticeship brings to employers, individuals and the economy.
Our top takeaways from the week were as follows:
Sainsbury's & Pret's successful apprenticeship stories
"Over the next 5 years we’re continuing to be ambitious and aspirational. We have an eye on our customers’ future needs and we’re working hard to build an Apprenticeship programme that will deliver colleagues with skills for the future."
Ruth Jennings, Apprenticeship and Qualifications Manager, Group Technical and Digital Learning, Sainsbury's Supermarkets Ltd.
Read the full blog
"Apprenticeships support Pret’s underlying recruitment ethos: qualities or behaviours, not qualifications. We stand strong by our ethos that we can develop skills and apprenticeships help with that."
Daksha Stancilas, Learning & Development Manager (Apprenticeships), Pret a Manager.
Read the full blog
MPs support our Parliamentary drop-in event on Apprenticeship Levy reform
We were delighted to hold a parliament drop-in event, sponsored by Rob Halfon MP, Chair of the Education Select Committee, who reinforced his commitment to supporting retail apprenticeships. The event was attended by over 30 MPs. We were joined by Sainsbury's, Pret, Joules, Company Shop, KFC, John Lewis and McDonalds, all showcasing retail as a career of choice as well as communicating the BRC messages around apprenticeship levy reform to MPs who attended.
Various MPs tweeted their support for apprenticeships in retail, take a look at our Twitter page, as well as promoting them on their website, including this article from Greg Smith MP. Rob Halfon said "I want to thank the BRC for all their work on apprenticeships and making National Apprenticeships Week 2020 so special in Parliament".
We must tackle apprenticeship stereotypes in retail
"We must encourage people to look beyond the outdated idea that retail is a first job rather than a career," writes Robert Halfon MP. On the flipside, retailers need to see reform from the government if the apprenticeship scheme is to meet its full potential. Read Rob Halfon’s full piece in last week’s Retail Gazette.
we heard how our brc Retail Apprenticeships are BENEFITING businesses
"As we enter 2020, we are proudly placing apprenticeships at the heart of our 'People Strategy'."
Roger Harrop, People Development Lead at Company Shop Group.
Read the blog: Placing our people at the centre
"We are already seeing a return of investment from our apprenticeship group, with all of them having put their learning into practice already."
James Cockbill, Learning and Development Manager at Joules.
Read the blog: We catch up with the Joules apprentices
There are some myths around the 20% off-the-job training for Apprentices
Hear how Joules and Company Shop Group have dealt with this in their business.
Working together with our hand-picked provider partners, BRC Learning offers high quality leadership and management apprenticeships tailored specifically for the retail industry. Find out more here.