Sound familiar?
❌ Promoted before they were ready
Great on the floor. Struggling in the role. The skills that got them promoted aren't the same ones they need to manage people.
❌ Generic training that never sticks
Boardroom case studies. Corporate language. Your managers sat through it and went back to doing things exactly the same way the following Monday.
❌ You can't get people out of store for a full day
Training keeps getting deprioritised because the business can't afford the cover. So nothing ever changes.
❌ You can't prove the ROI to your board
Attendance numbers aren't enough. Your finance director wants outcomes tied to something the business actually measures.
❌ Your budget doesn't stretch as far as it used to
More people to develop, more levels to cover, less resource to do it with. Every pound spent on the wrong programme is a pound you don't get back.
Retail leadership training that speaks your language
BRC Learning is the official training arm of the British Retail Consortium — the organisation that represents UK retail. That means everything we build is designed around the realities of your industry, not adapted from a corporate template that was built for someone else.
Our programmes are shaped by the HR and L&D professionals already using them. They're built around shift patterns, seasonal pressures, and the specific challenges of developing leaders in a fast-moving, people-intensive environment. And they're designed to deliver outcomes you can actually report back on, not just certificates and happy sheets.
Whether you need to develop a new supervisor, stretch a high-potential mid-level manager, or invest in your most senior leaders, there's a programme that fits.
Find the right programme for your team
We offer a clear pathway from first-time leader to senior executive — so you can build a development strategy that grows with your people.
BRC Leadership Essentials (For new and aspiring leaders)
Your supervisors and team leaders are your highest-turnover group. Leadership Essentials develops them quickly and cost-effectively — before they disengage, struggle, or leave. Free for BRC members, highly affordable for non-members.
BRC Leaders Summer School (For mid-level managers)
Your most overlooked development group. Summer School changes how mid-level managers think, lead, and perform. Book spaces now and confirm attendees later.
BRC Retail Masters (For senior and high-potential leaders)
For the leaders who are ready to operate at a higher level. If you have high-potential talent to stretch and retain, this is where you invest.
Why retail HR and L&D teams choose us
Built for retail, not adapted for it
Every case study, scenario, and framework is drawn from real retail environments. Your managers will recognise themselves in the content — which is when learning actually happens.
Flexible enough to fit around your operation
Online, in-person, and blended delivery options designed to work around rotas, peak periods, and a workforce that can't always step away from the floor.
Outcomes you can take back to your board
We help you connect training to the metrics that matter — retention rates, manager confidence scores, mystery shop results. You'll have the evidence to protect your training budget.
Backed by 125 years of retail expertise
As the training arm of the British Retail Consortium, we're not a generalist provider with a retail slide deck. We are retail.
Bespoke development & custom workshops
Sometimes an off-the-shelf programme isn't the right answer. If you're dealing with a specific challenge — high attrition in one region, a rapid store rollout, or a leadership team that's grown faster than your development strategy — we'll build something around you. Tell us what you're trying to solve and we'll design the solution.
Upcoming Events
We bring together HR and L&D professionals from across retail to share what's working, tackle shared challenges, and stay ahead of the trends shaping workplace learning. Open to members and non-members alike.
Meet the Learning Team
Vicki Young
Head of Learning
Vicki is an experienced people professional who brings a rich background in HR leadership to her role as Head of Learning for BRC Learning at the BRC.
Before joining the BRC, Vicki spent nearly a decade at World Duty Free, one of the UK's most prominent travel retailers, where she rose to Regional HR Manager for the South of England. In that role she held responsibility for around 1,000 employees across 14 locations, leading a team of 12 HR professionals and driving the full employee lifecycle. Her work centred on building strong business partnerships, delivering people-focused change, and developing leaders at every level of the organisation — giving her a grounded, commercial perspective on what effective learning really looks like in a retail environment.
She now brings that operational depth to BRC Learning, where since 2021 she has led the learning offer for one of the UK's most influential retail bodies, helping shape the skills and careers of people across the sector.
Kate Vukomanovic
Digital Capability Manager | BRC Learning
Kate is a learning and development professional with deep roots in the retail and hospitality sectors, specialising in building the training ecosystems that help retail businesses and their people thrive.
She spent over five years at Fuller, Smith & Turner, one of the UK's most respected pub and hospitality retailers, progressing from Retail Trainer to Learning Services Manager. In that time she designed and delivered induction programmes for General Managers, supported the development of over 75 deputy and assistant managers, and led training for new and refurbished sites across the estate. As Learning Services Manager, she took ownership of the company's LMS platform and led a team responsible for delivering blended learning at scale across the business.
Kate now channels that hands-on retail expertise into her role as Digital Capability Manager at the BRC, where she has been instrumental in the design of BRC Learning.
With a career built on understanding how retail people learn and grow, Kate brings a practitioner's perspective to every learning challenge.
Sam Coates
Marketing Manager | BRC Learning
Sam is a marketing professional with a genuine passion for education and lifelong learning, having built a career at the heart of institutions that inspire and develop people.
That passion is reflected throughout her experience. At Bellevue Education, one of the UK's leading independent school groups, she honed her skills in stakeholder engagement and relationship management. At London Business School — one of the world's most prestigious business schools — she worked across employer branding and degree programme marketing, playing a key role in promoting LBS's flagship MBA and postgraduate offerings. This gave her a rare, close-up understanding of how world-class learning institutions attract and engage their audiences.
Sam brings a compelling mix of marketing expertise and genuine sector insight, making her a distinctive voice at the intersection of education, professional development, and strategic communications.
FAQ's
Do we need to be a BRC member?
No. Our programmes are open to any retail business. BRC members receive preferential pricing and free access to Leadership Essentials, but non-members are very welcome and get the same quality of training.
Can we book spaces now and confirm who's attending later?
Yes — most of our HR and L&D clients do exactly this. It lets you secure budget now and nominate the right people when you're ready, without losing your place on a programme.
Our team can't commit to full-day training. Can you work around that?
Yes. Flexible delivery — online, in-person, and blended — is built into how we design every programme. We've worked with retail operations of every size and we know that training which can't be accessed simply doesn't happen.
How do we prove the return on investment to our board?
We help you define success metrics before the programme starts, not after. That means when training is complete, you have outcome data tied to real business performance — not just completion rates.
Ready to find the right programme for your team?
Request a free, no-obligation callback from one of our retail training specialists. We'll ask about your team, your challenges, and your budget — then recommend the programme that actually fits. No hard sell, no generic pitch.