COMMENT: A stronger workforce means better business. Yet many people who find themselves at some distance from the job market question whether a strong workforce includes them too, writes Polly Troughton, Landsec’s head of retail markets.
This week’s National Apprenticeship Week provides us with a timely reminder that there is value in thinking outside of the traditionally not very diverse box when it comes to recruitment.
For years, traditional methods of talent-spotting and recruitment have missed people who have a great deal to offer the job market. People who are homeless, haven’t had a job for several years or have never been employed, alongside young people who struggled to gain academic qualifications, often have little confidence but heaps of potential.
Delivering services
The people who greet guests, serve shoppers, maintain standards of cleanliness and deliver customer service are the people who ensure that a great visit to a well-curated and successful shopping destination turns into a phenomenal experience.
It is these people, as well as the brands and the leisure offering, that drive footfall and repeat custom. It is these people that must be at the forefront of our minds when we think about creating the best destinations.
From Lewisham to Kent, and Portsmouth to Leeds, Landsec has partnered with local authorities, charities and specialist training providers to offer on-the-job experience, pre-employment training and apprenticeships to people who want to build a career in retail.
Our community employment programme delivers schemes that have helped retail open its doors to people who may never have otherwise been offered employment. In 2016-17, 183 people were helped into work through our programmes. Since we began the scheme, we’ve helped more than 1,000 people secure jobs.
In January, Heidi Alexander, MP for Lewisham East, and Alan Smith, the deputy mayor of Lewisham, joined 20 young people (pictured above) at Lewisham Shopping Centre to celebrate their graduation from a pioneering “Get Employed” training course run by Landsec and social enterprise Circle Collective.
Gaining retail skills
Through the partnership, 18-to-30 year-olds complete a five-week course covering employability, personal finance, rights and responsibilities and employers’ expectations, alongside a work experience placement in a pop-up shop that is designed to equip participants with retail skills.
The store opened in October 2017 and to date has provided more than 100 work experience shifts for unemployed young people in the Lewisham area, as well as featuring limited-edition clothing lines from apprentice designers in Lewisham.
Bluewater in Kent, Gunwharf Quays in Portsmouth and White Rose in Leeds are each home to a “learning shop” that offers opportunities for the local community, delivering bespoke pre-employment training programmes that often lead to jobs and apprenticeships. In Oxford, we have partnered with charity Aspire to help people from disadvantaged backgrounds develop qualifications and find work across our supply chain.
The programmes we offer change lives, but they make commercial sense too. We’re confident that on-the-job training and pre-employment programmes not only equip people for the future, but strengthen our business and enhance the experience we offer our customers. We’re certain that, in years to come, recruitment of this type will become even more important.
