Retail sector talks shop with students
By Elizabeth Eyre (02-07-2008)
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Retailers are being urged to provide students with a positive experience of working in the sector in a bid to get more graduates into retail.
New research by the sector skills council Skillsmart Retail has revealed that graduates are eight times more likely to consider working in retail if they had a good experience of working in shops as students.
Chief executive Anne Seaman says that, because so many young people work part-time in shops while in education, the sector has a “golden opportunity” to show them that there is a genuine career path available to them when they join the workforce full-time.
This was particularly important when faced with a shrinking labour pool.
The Skillsmart Retail online survey of 1,038 students from across the UK found that 64 per cent of respondents who had a good experience of working part-time in retail would choose it as a career after leaving university, compared to just 8 per cent of those who had a bad experience.
Sixty five per cent had worked in retail before graduating and 40 per cent had had a bad experience of the sector.
The findings have been released as employers prepare to attract new graduates for the coming year.
Seaman said: “Retail is in the unique position of having nearly half a million students experiencing what it is like to work in the sector before they enter the world of full-time work. It is therefore a golden opportunity to show that the sector offers promising careers while young people are working in the industry during school, college and university.”
Anne Richardson, careers strategy manager at Skillsmart Retail, added: “A shrinking labour pool means that we have to ensure that we get as many talented young people into the sector at a young age as possible. If we can prove that there is a good career to be had in the sector, rather than just a Saturday job, there is a better chance of our attracting the very best people.”
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