The leaders of the UK’s two largest supermarkets have issued a rallying cry to employ young British people and train them well as the Tesco boss branded the UK education system “woeful”.
Tesco chief executive Sir Terry Leahy said standards in UK schools were “woefully low” while Asda chief operating officer Andy Clarke implored piers in the grocery industry to put their faith in young people in this country and committed the UK’s number-two retailer to a programme of employment.
In an address to the centenary IGD convention at the Royal Lancaster Hotel in London on Tuesday, Leahy told members of the retailer industry that “as the biggest private employer in the UK we rely on school education and standards are woefully low” blaming the government wholeheartedly for the problem - a statement which was met with applause in the auditorium.
Leahy added that Tesco were often left to “pick up the pieces” after failed educations and suggested teachers were overburdened by government directives, taking away from preparing students for practical, modern work.
“There are too many agencies who issue information and teachers who then get distracted from their task of teaching the children.”
Clarke, meanwhile, insisted his message was a-political in issuing a commitment to employing young British workers for the next three years.
Asda already employs a significant number of students during the summer holidays and Clarke suggested introducing measures to keep them with the company.
He also backed work-based apprenticeships after showing delegates a video of young men seemingly trapped in a spiral ignorance and unemployment in Hull.
Clarke said: “Sir Alan Sugar has gone some way to bringing back apprenticeships and it would really help to give these people a sense of worth and hopefully get them to stay on and become our colleagues.
“If you don’t have the qualifications or financial backing to go to university there should still be options for young people.”
Clarke admitted that, during the recession, the labour pool had strengthen with highly qualified people with proven track records taking up many positions available in retail but asked assembled leaders in the retail industry whether they could do more to address the number of young, unemployed people in the UK.
He invoked his own past, stacking shelves in an Adsa store 30 years ago, and said there would never be a “glass ceiling” at the retailer.
BBC broadcaster and journalist Michael Buerk, chairing the conference, later quipped that Asda would be changing its name to ‘ASBO’ while praising Clarke’s commitment to the UK’s “talent pool”.
Derek Williams, development director at Improve, told FPJ from food distribution, manufacture and supply perspective he sympathised with Clarke and Leahy’s viewpoints but pointed out there are a number of diplomas for 14-19 year-olds, as well as apprenticeships for 14-16 year olds, that prepared them well.
He said: “There are a number of measures in place to help young people become fit for purpose but it doesn’t happen over night. It’s a matter of working in partnerships and employers, as well as government, taking responsibility in offer opportunities.”
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