Retail work experience

1. Retail work experience Why people do it, why they don’t do it, and why it can be hard to find in the first place Dr. Charlie Ball Higher Education Careers Services Unit

2. The Mission…. • Asked by Skillsmart (the retail Sector Skills Development Agency) and the South East England Development Agency • To investigate the barriers to FE and HE work experience in the retail sector in the south east • ...in three months

3. The Sector Labour Force Survey data suggests that about 10 to 12 per cent of the working population in the UK is employed in retail – over 3 million people Total sales in 2004: £259bn 425,000 people in the south east work in the sector

4. The Problem Only 15% of the retail workforce have NVQ4+ - nationally, just under 30% of the UK workforce are educated to this level Only 10% of employees under 24 have NVQ4+ 17% have NVQ3. NVQ2 is the most commonly held qualification

5. The Future At present, 22% of retail managers have NVQ4, compared to 42% for the whole population Working Futures 2006 suggests that, by 2014, the sector will need 298,000 new managers as a result of expansion or replacement demand In 2005, 15,905 graduates were working in retail six months on BUT over 60% were in non-graduate shop floor roles. Most leave the retail sector entirely, not to return, when a graduate role presents itself. The retail sector faces a huge skills challenge

6. The methodology • Telephone interviews with a sample of • University tutors • FE teachers • Employers in retailing • Students of retail • ...in three months

7. The interviews Semi-structured interviews conducted by telephone to an interview schedule tailored to each group of respondents It became clear from the start that one of the key barriers was simply gaining access to appropriate people – if they even existed

8. The Employers “It is felt that employers pay lip service to community engagement, but don't really practise it” – FE interviewee “A pain. An extra pair of hands with no skills” – employer interviewee “[Company] are very active on campus, and do skills training with students, which keeps them at the front of student perceptions.” - HE interviewee

9. The institutions “Academic buy-in is not great. Employability is what happens to students when they leave.” – HE interviewee “Much (work placement) is not as good, and it is organised by individual tutors, some of whom are not as committed to arranging work placements as others” – FE interviewee “Institutions are keen on getting placements….but then not enough support during the placement. They need to come in and support the student” – Employer interviewee

10. The students “Some students could be better prepared….they don’t know the company, dress badly, chew gum and so on.” – employer interviewee “Half my humanities students want to be fashion buyers!” – HE interviewee “I love it. I don’t do the same thing every day. We work ahead of things…it changes every day” – student interviewee

11. The benefits "Doing work experience means that students can almost guarantee a job later on, and they know that they can get a reference for students." - HE interviewee "They [sandwich students] are ambassadors for the brand when they go back to university or anywhere else if they have a good experience. Word of mouth marketing is very strong." - employer interviewee “They say in retail ‘you will never be rich, but you can make a good living’, and that is true.” – employer interviewee

12. The barriers “People don’t go to bed dreaming of being supermarket managers” – employer interviewee "The image of retail is bad, people think of it as boring, and that you don't need brains. It's a stereotypical view. When you say what you are studying or where you are working, people try to belittle retail." - student interviewee "Many of them already work or have worked…..as shelf-fillers, and equate retail jobs with that.” – HE interviewee

13. The conclusion “The retail sector is extremely good at marketing its products, and very poor at marketing itself.”