Apart from his passion for retail, former Tesco boss Sir Terry Leahy had another passion: the UK’s education system. In June, Sir Terry issued a stark warning about the poor standards in Britain’s schools and universities that leave youngsters ill-prepared for work.
Sir Terry, who handed over the running of the company to Philip Clarke in February after 14 years as chief executive, worried constantly about skills gaps and the failure of the UK education system to produce quality graduates.
But despite Sir Terry’s fears, Tesco, which now has 2,715 UK stores, and 495,000 employees worldwide, seems to have no such worries as it embarks on another round of graduate recruitment.
Tom Lyas, who heads the company’s graduate scheme, says: “We are not seeing any shortage of talent coming out of university. If anything, we are spoiled for choice.”
As evidence, Lyas says that for the property acquisitions graduate scheme alone for 2011, the company received 120 applications, mostly of a high calibre, for just two places. Graduates in these posts start on £25,000 a year with no bonuses.
Tesco offers 19 graduate schemes, split into three main areas: store programme; office programme, and distribution programme. Within the office programme is property, which is further divided into eight sections, including acquisitions. And the supermarket giant Tesco is one of the only supermarkets to offer such a comprehensive and wide-ranging graduate programme.
On the Tesco.com website, the course description states that graduates “will have real responsibility. Through liaising with consultants, inspecting properties, negotiating deals, you’ll help the team to decide where to develop stores and continue with the expansion of Tesco’s property portfolio.”
Individual categories
Having started with the property graduate scheme in 2003 with 10 graduates, Tesco split the scheme into the individual categories in 2006. Today, the number for all Tesco graduates across the board is up to 400 a year, with the company receiving around 13,500 applications annually. The total number of graduates for property, who start each September, was up to 30 last year.
Lyas says Tesco has a good relationship with Reading, Oxford Brooks, and Nottingham Trent universities, which provide most of the company’s intake. But he admits that until a few years ago a lot of students did not realise they could have a career with the retailer as a surveyor because they did not know how that Tesco is one of the biggest developers in Europe.
This meant the company was competing on the careers circuit with the likes of well-known names such as DTZ, and Jones Lang LaSalle. This perception has now changed, however, through Tesco’s own work at careers fairs and university lectures talking about the company.
“The students I am now speaking to are more aware of Tesco, who we are and what we do,” says Lyas, who adds that next September, the 18-month acquisitions course team intake will double to four graduates.
Applications for Tesco’s graduate scheme starting in September 2012 will be accepted until 31 December. They are sorted between January and February. For more information, go to www.tesco-graduates.com/home/programmes/office/property-and-engineering
From graduate to manager
Tom Springette is now development manager, convenience, for Tesco. But in 2006 he was one of the first graduates to be taken on to the dedicated acquisitions team after he finished at Oxford Brooks.
Tesco appealed, say Springette, because “it was attractive to be on the client side”. He adds: “I applied to various companies, but Tesco was one of the first to give me feedback [on my application]. And it is one of the biggest developers in Europe, so it was a no-brainer to apply.”
Springette says that as a graduate trainee, reading leases every day allowed him “to grow his wings”. “The graduate scheme provides a good understanding of the business, as you are dealing with things on a day-to-day basis.”
Starting work at Tesco before the recession, and then experiencing life afterwards has, says Springette, taught him “good house keeping, because you are learning how to deal with the environment. Yes, cuts have been made, but if we have to ride the storm, it was good to learn how to do that.”
Property acquisitions graduates Chris Wilkinson (left) and Alastair Gaisford are the two students who won the 2011 golden tickets to start their training with Tesco.
Both came from Reading university, where they studied together, before starting on the Tesco graduate scheme in property acquisitions in September this year.
Wilkinson says the main driver for him choosing Tesco was that “you see property from the overall process involved. There is something tangible in seeing the broader business sense of the property side of things, especially given that Tesco is one of the largest developers.”
Wilkinson says that at the moment he is on the mixed-use side of the acquisitions team in Spenhill, which is giving him “a broad variety of experiences,” Wilkinson adds.
“Being on the client side and giving something to the overall business was appealing from the client side.”
For Gaisford, the ambition to work for Tesco came from the company being mentioned by his university lecturers. “When Tesco came to the careers fair, I spoke to one of their graduates and he told me what he was doing and that really appealed.”
A position of responsibility
Gaisford says when he started in the company a few months ago, he was given a lot of responsibility with the project team.
“I worked with architects and planners, and that is what you want because as a graduate you are worried about coming into the company and getting all the less glamorous things to do,” he says.
He says that at Tesco, “you are being developed as a leader of the future and that [the company has] a whole leadership framework in place”.
Added to that, both Gaisford and Wilkinson say that with such a large intake of graduates every year, there are other people who are at the same stage, and through graduate forums they can talk about their hopes, concerns and aspirations.
Tom Springette is now development manager, convenience, for Tesco. But in 2006 he was one of the first graduates to be taken on to the dedicated acquisitions team after he finished at Oxford Brooks.
Tesco appealed, say Springette, because “it was attractive to be on the client side.” He adds: “I applied to various different companies, but Tesco was one of the first to give me feed back [on my application]. And, they were the biggest developer in Europe so it was a no-brainer to apply to them.”
Springette says that as a graduate trainee, reading leases every day was good for him, allowing him ‘to grow his wings’. “The graduate scheme gives a good understanding of the business as you are dealing with things on a day-to-day basis.”
Starting work at Tesco before the recession, and then experiencing life afterwards, says Springette has taught him, “good house keeping, because you are learning how to deal with the environment around you. Yes, cuts have been made, but if we have to ride the storm, it was good to learn how to learn to do that.”
