4 Skills
Retail is an entry-level occupation for significant
numbers of workers, but it is also an occupation that people progress
through. [Fiona Wilson, USDAW][62]
General skills
43. Retail is the largest private sector employer
in the UK. Around three million people are employed by the UK
retail sector (which equates to around a tenth of the UK workforce),
and retail is the largest private sector employer.[63]
The British Independent Retailers Association carried out a survey
of 4,000 of its members, which indicated that "the average
small shop sustains eleven jobs. Even if this was twice the norm
it would indicate that independents provide more than a million
positions".[64]
The British Retail Consortium stated that retailers' investment
in staff training "is equivalent to £1,275 per employee
each year".[65]
Fiona Wilson, from USDAW, told us that "in the retail industry,
the workforce is the greatest asset, and therefore it is very
important, from an inquiry point of view, to consider the workforce—their
terms and conditions, their pay and, particularly, the skills
that they need to keep the sector growing".[66]
44. Boots UK wrote of the common misconception that
retail is a low skill and low cost sector, when the reality is
that the sector often offers rewarding careers, with a good career
progression:
The retail sector invests heavily in its staff
and provides many people with skills and experience that they
utilise throughout their life. […] As retail changes and
the store-online experience become more seamless and integrated,
staff within the retail sector will need to have the skills to
operate across multiple platforms whilst still engaging with customers
in a face to face conversation".[67]
45. Fiona Wilson, from USDAW, described the career
progression available for staff, and the way in which employers
and unions support that progression:
Retail is an entry-level occupation for significant
numbers of workers, but it is also an occupation that people progress
through. It is often a case of starting on the shop floor and
working your way up. That is a very common pattern for employment
and skills within retail. […] What we do as a union is important,
in that we develop our lifelong learning work. We have funds from
BIS through the Union Learning Funds. […] We support our
members: more than 7,000 of our members last year had some skills
training, such as skills for Life courses, IT courses, literacy
and numeracy levels 1 and 2, and accessing National Vocational
Qualifications 2 and 3.
She went on to describe the training that the Union
and employers run jointly:
There are lots of situations where there are
Union Learning reps, and those reps work with the employers there
through formal agreements to help to skill workers who are already
there. We find that the Union Learning Fund is exceptionally valuable
from a joint point of view, in terms of giving workers who are
already in that employment the skills to continue to work and
develop themselves.[68]
46. The Rural Shops Alliance criticised the BIS strategy
document for listing more specialist skills and knowledge needed
in the retail sector, while not mentioning more general skills
and development.
The BIS strategy document mentioned knowledge
transfer between various stakeholders, research into assisted
living products and a skills gap analysis. These disparate approaches
fail to address more mundane needs that would nevertheless have
a large impact on the quality of retail management in the UK.
Independent retailers often enter the profession after a career
elsewhere. The barriers to entry into the retail industry are
fairly low and it is possible to run a shop with very few retail
skills. There is a massive need for specialist consultancy and
training support for small independent retailers.[69]
47. We recognise the important work that employers,
unions, and the Government do in supporting people already in
the workforce to continue to work and develop their skills. We
were therefore disappointed that the Department did not highlight
this work in its Retail Strategy. We recommend that the Department
commits to continued financial support for the Union Learning
Fund, which enables unions and employers to work together, providing
employee training and support. LEPs could provide valuable assistance
in this work.
Apprenticeships
48. Apprenticeships are being used more and more
in the Retail Sector in England, which the Government's evidence
highlighted:
Retail is one of the largest users of Apprenticeships.
In the 2011/12 academic year there were 108,300 Apprenticeship
starts in the 'Retail and Commercial Enterprise' Sector Subject
Area, up by 5.4% on 2010/11 and up by 75.7% on 2009/10.[70]
Apprenticeships offer more long-term opportunities
than in-house training. Martin-Christian Kent, from the National
Skills Academy, explained the difference:
Ultimately, if somebody is starting in the sector,
then they have got a longer journey to reach that professional
standard, and that is what the apprenticeship is for. In other
instances, in-house training and qualifications have a different
role. They have got the same parity, but the critical thing is
raising the aspirations and looking at these professional standards.[71]
Stephen Rydzkowski, from USDAW, told us that apprenticeships
in retailing is one of the fastest growing. He said:
All our major companies now operate apprenticeship
schemes. We do not normally mention companies, but we will talk
about the Co-op group […] because that is an area where there
is a range of apprenticeships throughout the sector. You have
got retail apprentices; you have got clerical apprentices; you
have got motor mechanic apprentices; and you have even got apprenticeships
in the farming industry.[72]
49. Morrisons highlighted the support that it gives
to its staff, including those who leave school without any qualifications:
To date, over 110,000 Morrisons colleagues have completed
a QCF/SVQ Level 2 qualification in either retail skills or customer
service (equivalent to 5 GCSEs at grade C or above). Almost a
third of these colleagues left school without a single qualification.
So the training we are offering is repairing gaps in knowledge
left by the education system and building confidence, as well
as setting colleagues on the first step towards the fulfilment
of career goals.[73]
Similarly, the Association of Licensed Multiple Retailers
wrote of the high proportion of apprenticeships provided by licensed
hospitality:
Licensed hospitality is the fifth largest providers
of apprenticeships and properly configured, they offer robust,
transferable skills, which are beneficial to both employee and
employer. Currently, 3% of our workforce is on an apprenticeship,
but our ambition is to offer that to 5%. On average, 80% of our
school leavers starting a pub and bar apprenticeship go on to
enjoy a career with the business after finishing the programme,
meaning stability for learners and company alike.[74]
50. Martin-Christian Kent raised the point that the
changing nature of retail means that the content of apprenticeships
in the sector needs to evolve: "We are working with employers
to embed multi-channel and omni-channel skills within the current
apprenticeships. It is part and parcel of what their staff need
for our sector at this moment. Many of our national businesses
are really recognising that as they move into this new world of
global retailing and not just local retailing".[75]
51. Apprenticeships are being used more frequently
in the Retail Sector. They allow retail staff, who often leave
school with few qualifications, to gain transferable, interpersonal
skills. However, retailing is becoming a much more sophisticated
industry, and those who work in the sector need to be more comprehensively
trained. We support the work that employers do in training their
workforce. The retail sector should be more ambitious about skills
training, encouraging more staff to be trained at Level 3 and
above. Furthermore, given the importance of tourism to the United
Kingdom, consideration 0should be given to developing language
skills to enhance the international consumers' retail experience.
Digital skills in the Retail Sector
52. Our evidence highlighted the need for skills
in the retail sector to keep up with its changing retail landscape.[76]
With the rapidly changing nature of the retail sector, the National
Skills Academy for Retail described the corresponding changing
nature of skills:
To respond to these changes, retailers must be
increasingly willing to engage with customers across multiple
channels, combining traditional bricks and mortar and online presences,
with the single objective of enhancing the customer experience.
This had profound implications for shops and for those who work
in them—click and collect will become commonplace and returning
goods will become a major issue. There will be major changes in
the way retailers use physical space and technology.[77]
It highlighted the two major impacts on skills:
· Retailers need to upskill their customer
facing workforces to be able to deal with customers who are increasingly
willing to shop across a variety of channels. In many cases the
customer is ahead of retailers' ability to respond.
· Many small businesses have not yet
embraced the technology due to their lacking the technical skills
to get their businesses online. A major initiative to upskill
the owners and managers of small businesses is needed if we are
to retain the diverse range of retailers we currently have.[78]
53. TalkTalk Group's written evidence stated that
half a million SMEs lacked the digital skills required to make
the most of online opportunities and that only 14% of SMEs sold
products and services online.[79]
TalkTalk went on to argue that improving the digital skills of
UK businesses, especially retailers, should be a priority of Government:
The Government are making a considerable investment
into building infrastructure but an insignificant small amount
on making sure people are able to use it. Northern Ireland has
around 95% superfast broadband coverage already today yet around
24% of the population have never been online; the highest level
of exclusion in the UK. The Government is about to spend £150
million on broadband via its Super Connected Cities programme
and currently it looks like a significant portion of that will
go to fund broadband connection fees for SMEs. TalkTalk believes
this funding would be much better invested in skills programmes
and initiatives like funding UK online centres.
Talk more about the importance of digital skills.
We believe the more Government talk about it, the more motivated
the private and third sector will become to take steps to change
behaviour. The internet connects, educates and informs and TalkTalk
strongly believe that working to close the digital skills gap
is essential for the UK's economic growth.[80]
54. The only reference to skills in the first BIS
retail strategy document of October 2012 was the lack of people
with adequate science, technology, engineering and mathematics
(STEM) skills throughout the retail sector, with an undertaking
to carry out a retail STEM skills gap analysis in February 2013.
It stated:
The Government will help to identify the extent
of the problem by undertaking a retail STEM skills gap analysis,
likely to focus on higher mathematics, technical capability, data
mining and analysis, e-commerce functionality and cyber security,
good science and technology (February 2013).[81]
When asked what the Government had learnt from this
analysis, Michael Fallon, Minister at BIS, replied:
We learned that there are still skills gaps inside
the sector. The Minister for skills in my Department continues
to meet the Retail Consortium and each of the individual retail
employers, alongside the National Skills Academy, to make sure
they are getting the best out of the apprenticeship scheme, that
they put forward good bids for the employer ownership pilot schemes
and to see what we can do to help stakeholders, particularly in
this sector, map the range of retail roles that will require digital
skills in the future, not least the ones that will demand a higher
level of maths and knowledge of code than we have seen up till
now.[82]
The Department's Strategy for Future Retail,
published in October 2013, restated the Government's ambition
for skills and the progress made thus far:
To make the most of these opportunities, BIS
will:
In partnership with retailers, retail sector
bodies and skills providers, develop a framework that identifies
the range of retail roles that require skills in high level mathematics
and data analysis. The project will then map the skills and qualifications
required in these roles. Key partners: BIS, Retail sector bodies,
retailers, retail Sector Skills Council, research councils (Spring
2014);
In partnership with stakeholders, develop a framework
that captures current and planned initiatives and activities to
drive up digital skills and qualifications across Government,
retailers and retail organisations and sector skills bodies, and
promote effective collaboration and co-ordination where possible.
Areas captured would include the retail National Occupational
Standards for Multichannel, the Government's Information Economy
strategy, and the 'Stimulating Innovation' action of this strategy.
Key partners: BIS, Retail sector bodies, retailers, retail Sector
Skills Council, research councils. (Spring 2014).[83]
When asked about the similarities between the action
points on skills from the original BIS Retail Strategy document
to those in the document published the week before the oral evidence
session, Michael Fallon told us:
The retail strategy itself is new. What we published
last week is a refresh, one year on. There are other policies
across government, the launch of the digital capability programme
and so on, that have come on stream this year, which need to be
tailored to what we are going to do on digital. We are not dragging
our feet on this at all. We want to work with the industry and
make sure that we can really focus our effort on where they think
the priorities are and on where they think the gaps are.[84]
55. The changing nature of how people shop
needs to be mirrored in the way in which staff are trained, to
enable them to provide a more tailored service. The BIS Retail
Strategy document published in 2012 made passing reference to
skills needed for the retail sector, referring only to the need
for a science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM)
skills gap analysis. In its follow-up document a year later,
A Strategy for Future Retail stated that an analysis of skills
needed for high level mathematics, data analysis, and general
digital skills to be completed by the Spring of 2014. In its response
to this Report, the Government must outline the results of BIS's
latest STEM skills analysis, and the timeline for the action that
it will take.
62 Q104 Back
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Ev 115 Back
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Ev w25 Back
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Ev 174 Back
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Q104 Back
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Ev 164 Back
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Q126 Back
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Ev 187 Back
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Ev 132 Back
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Q300 Back
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Q126 Back
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Ev w63 Back
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Ev w14 Back
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Q301 Back
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For example, Ev 183 [National Skills Academy for Retail]; Ev w23
[British Independent Retailers Association]; Ev 172 [British Retail
Consortium] Back
77
Ev 186 Back
78
Ev 186 Back
79
Ev 192 Back
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Ev 193 Back
81
BIS Retail Strategy, page 6 Back
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Q422 Back
83
The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, A Strategy
for Future Retail: Industry and Government delivering in partnership,
October 2013, para 2.7.2. Back
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