Apprenticeships: Futureproofing retail’s post-pandemic workforce and boosting the talent pipeline
How apprenticeships weathered the pandemic, why they remain vital to retail’s workforce and social value, and the end-point assessment advantage.
As the retail industry works hard to recover from the global pandemic, and further headwinds gather, the necessity to upskill and lingering recruitment challenges continue. Apprenticeships are, and will increasingly be, part of the solution.
What happened to apprenticeship recruitment over the pandemic?
At the outset of the pandemic, in the 2019/20 academic year, the number of apprentices starting programmes in the retail industry saw a sharp 31% decline, more than most industries. This interrupted steady growth in the previous year.
Recruitment of apprentices picked up again in 2020/21 in some, but not all sub-sectors. Starts attributed to companies classified as retail trade (excluding motor vehicles) took a larger initial hit, but rebounded faster. Over the same period wholesale trade held relatively steady after the initial dip, while starts associated with the automotive trade continue to decline year-on-year.
Chart 1: Apprenticeship starts across the retail industry
Source: Department for Education national statistics
Apprenticeships focused on retail-specific occupations fared better
Over the course of the pandemic there was a noted change in the mix of standards retailers prioritised. All apprenticeships aim at specific occupations, based on industry-developed standards detailing the required knowledge, skills and behaviours for success in role. Apprenticeship programmes aimed at occupations found in multiple industries are well served, such as general management, business administration and IT technicians. These standards have always comprised the bulk of apprenticeship starts for the retail industry.
Standards for retail-specific occupations include several tiers of retail operations and management (mainly store focused), customer service specialists and more recently buying and merchandising.
Against the backdrop of overall decline apprenticeship starts on retail-specific standards increased as a proportion of the mix, rising to 36% in 2020/21 and exceeding volumes seen in 2017/18 – a year free from Covid-19.
Chart 2: All apprenticeship starts vrs. starts on retail-specific standards
Source: Department for Education national statistics
How did retailers use apprenticeships over the course of the pandemic?
Focusing on the uptake of retail-specific standards is a good way to understand how retailers used apprenticeship programmes to attract and upskill their workforce over the pandemic. Generally speaking, apprenticeships can be deployed as an intake programme or as a way to upskill the incumbent workforce. On intake orientated programmes apprentices will start their training nearer to their date of first employment. Apprenticeships offered with upskilling in mind are more likely to include employees who have been with the business for longer.
Prior to the pandemic, roughly a third of starts on retail-specific standards went to employees who had been with the business for less than a year. By the end of the 2020/21 academic year this proportion jumped to just under half – a notable shift suggesting a trend towards attraction.
Chart 3: Apprenticeship starts on retail-specific standards by length of employment
Source: Department for Education national statistics
The age of apprentices on retail-specific standards remained remarkably stable through the pandemic. The age profile dispels myths that apprenticeships are just for those fresh out of education, as individuals under the age of 25 comprised less than half of all starts in 2020/21.
The opportunity of apprenticeships
It is clear that retailers active in the apprenticeship space continued to see value, sustaining scaled-down schemes even through the darkest days of the pandemic. Early data on the first two quarters of 2022/23 suggest cautious levels of recruitment continue.
However, compared to the sheer size of retail’s workforce, apprenticeships are underutilised. There are a number of factors which suggest this is unlikely to continue:
Young adults will increasingly choose apprenticeships over further and higher education. Recent changes to student loan repayment terms, and the steady introduction of higher-level apprenticeships standards, will accelerate this trend. The trade-off facing school leavers will soon be between University and a lifetime of debt or an apprenticeship and a regular pay check. This contrast will matter more in adverse economic conditions and increasingly shape the choices of the next generation.
The arithmetic of apprenticeship investment has improved. The apprenticeship levy is unlikely to disappear given the state of the public purse. This means larger organisations pay for training whether they run apprenticeship or not and the costs are minimised for smaller organisations. Incentive payments for younger apprentices look set to continue. The range of apprenticeship standards relevant to the retail industry has also been steadily increasing; while there are no guarantees that these standards will continue to be developed or maintained, more options are available than ever before.
Retail apprenticeships provide positive social impact. The retail industry has always been an engine of social mobility, it is no different for apprenticeships in the retail trade. In the 2020/21 academic year just under 24% of all apprenticeship starts attributed to retail trade came from the 20% most deprived areas of the country, 4% more compared to the national picture.
Apprenticeships are here to stay. As educational initiatives go, apprenticeships enjoy cross-party esteem. While history suggests this in no shield from national policy changes or the occasional set of reforms, apprenticeships will be a feature of tomorrow.
The end-point assessment advantage
The current benefits and prospects of apprenticeships are clear, but getting the programmes right is not straightforward. The best apprenticeship schemes are run by teams able to provide time, informed support and steady attention to year-on-year improvement. Key to this is working with the right partners.
An overlooked but important component of getting the best out of your apprenticeships is choosing the right end-point assessment organisation. All contemporary apprenticeships require end-point assessment, an important summative test of what apprentices know and can do.
End-point assessment organisations administer these tests, acting as gatekeepers of quality as well as providers of support and advice for understanding the potential and limits of the apprenticeship standards on offer. The choice of end-point assessment organisation is ultimately down to retailers, whether this choice is given thorough attention or left to training providers.
Fashion and Retail Awards exists to make this choice mean more to the retail industry. All proceeds from our end-point assessment operation go back into boosting and diversifying the retail talent pipeline, extending opportunity and inspiring the next generation. We bring retail and assessment experts to the task of end-point assessment while making a direct contribution to the ‘S’ in ESG on behalf of our partners. If you’re interested in this agenda or our insights, we’d love to hear from you.
To find out more about Fashion & Retail Awards and the services they provide to the retail industry, click here.
This article was also published in The Retailer, our quarterly online magazine providing thought-leading insights from BRC experts and Associate Members.