Sainsbury’s boss Justin King said competition between major supermarkets to be seen to be providing employment and support for young people was good for brands as well as for business.
Andy Clarke, chief operating officer for rivals Asda, had said the company’s new Young Retailer Programme was “not about one-upmanship” between the major multiples or gaining a competitive advantage but supporting youth in the UK.
Clarke announced the programme, which will see up to 15,000 work experience placements for 14- to 16-year-olds as well as 28,000 job opportunities aimed at young people and with accredited training from City & Guild, at the IGD’s Skills and Employment Summit at the British Museum in London on Wednesday.
Clarke said the experience would “not just be making tea and sweeping floors” but give young people the opportunity to look at “real work”, such as stock control and the logistics of deliver.
The scheme will initially begin in Yorkshire, the West Midlands and the North East of England before being rolled out to the rest of the UK before the end of 2010.
King echoed Clarke’s impassioned support for youth employment and was open in that initiatives in boosting employment played well for retailers.
King said: “I disagree with Andy as I think being seen to be a good employer is a competitive issue and is an important part of the brand and that is why it is, perhaps uniquely, our concern in the grocery industry.
“We will have to respond to your competitive challenge Andy, but as a food chain we need to stand together, as we have done successfully on issues relating to energy and water, and recognise that food science in schools is as important as other sciences.”
Tesco corporate and legal affairs executive director Lucy Neville-Rolfe echoed the supermarket giant’s ceo Terry Leahy’s comments at the IGD convention in October 2009 when he attacked the current UK schooling system.
Neville-Rolfe set out five lessons from the retail sector she believes could be applicable to the education system following an attack on the current regime, which is birthing “basic problems with literacy and numeracy”. These were to encourage aspiration, to keep administration simple, to push down the accountability allowing headteachers more responsibility, to reward people properly and to get schools involved in the local community.
She also announced a new partnership, Teach First, which “will be supporting the placement of graduates in particularly deprived schools in Hertfordshire to help improve school management and attainment".
She added: “If we as an industry want to play our part in identifying the problems and contributing to some of the solutions, it is therefore all the more important that we get off to a good start today.”
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