Retail "apprenticeship " just a way of getting cheap labour?

[wecoudlofhaditall]

Currently looking for a job
Thought I would see what retail jobs were available
Superdrug and card factory to name two are offering "retail apprenticeship " positions
Paying a low wage for the same job an actual retail assistant is getting paid.
My first retail job was at Debenhams and literally picked it up first day.
It's not difficult

Surely this is a way of cheap labour ?

Yes it must be. There are some great apprentiships out there, but some seem very much about paying less.

Did it lead to any qualification as well, that could reasonably have needed support

Did they offer an academic qualification alongside at all?

Depends on the college and the business but often apprentices don’t work a full week because they have 1 day at college (term time anyway). The idea is that as well as working you earn a qualification that leads on to other things, either with that business or another one.
I’ve seen retail apprentices complete their 2 year course and be assistant store managers after 3 years and become store managers after 5, so it can be a path to a decent career

The Superdrug one was no college days
Just working in store
It said after a year you get a level 2 certificate of retail sales (which will mean nothing )
It's £288 a week for 37.5 hours

So apprenticeships come with training, will that be of any use? If its a foot in the door of an industry you'd like to work in then maybe research more into it. Do they generally promote apprenticeships after they qualify, for example.

There are some fantastic opportunities out there but, agreed, some seem to treat it as cheap labour. It's trying to sort out which is which!

Sorry 39 hours a week

Yes, it clearly is.
Some years ago, I bumped into a girl a knee who told me she was doing a college course in retail , culminating in “ work experience’ at a very well known high street store. I was really shocked that the government was buying into this crsp, firstly in creating such a course, and secondly in subsidising large profit making retailers.
It’s an extension of the thinking that has state benefits topping up the low wages paid by retailers, thus keeping the wages low and enabling shareholders to have increased payouts.

Wow OP, i've just had a look at the Superdrug one and it's shocking. How are they getting away with this?

Your Assessor and store team will work with you to improve your communication, team work and organisational skills. They will support you with your employability skills including interview skills, CV preparation, managing your money, health, and wellbeing.

Your training will take place in store so no college days! At the end of your training, you will complete an end point assessment and on successful completion you will achieve a Retailer L2 Apprenticeship.

During your Apprenticeship your Assessor and Store Manager will discuss with you any potential progression opportunities, including becoming a sales advisor, team leader or other retail roles.

Customer service and retail apprenticeships are a scam and should be illegal. They’re minimum wage anyway and all skills can be learned on the job.

What academic qualification is needed to work in retail

I say that as someone who did 10 years in retail and saw these schemes come in

its a scam for cheap labour and government funding culminating in a nonsense qualification which isn’t needed for the role

It does depend
Cheap labour must be at minimum wage, and for apprentices the set level equals minimum wage up to the age of 18, then falls below but only applies for the first year of apprenticeship then the age appropriate minimum applies again.

So for 18 plus it’s cheap labour for a year - but ought to come with structured training which is at various levels and can be targeted into specific areas of retail.
Apprenticeships answer the need for ‘experience’ and for the employer allow that training to be aligned with their needs.

https://www.prospects.ac.uk/jobs-and-work-experience/job-sectors/retail/retail-apprenticeships

If it’s a year with nothing to show for it then it’s cheap labour, but could still beat a zero hour minimum wage contract

@Whinge it's shocking isn't it
I would put money on after a year they don't get a full time job.
They will get another young person to do it for pennies
Shocking

They look like they’re on thin ice for that qualifying as an apprenticeship to me. An apprenticeship should have “off the job” time which doesn’t have to be formal in college but shouldn’t be on the shop floor.

I do think apprenticeships can be absolutely brilliant, an opportunity for people who have not got traditional qualifications to get a great start in their career. But absolutely they are also used as cheap labour.

This is an absolute scam and should not be allowed. At the end of the year they will let go of the apprentice and get a new one to continue to pay a low wage. Retail assistant jobs are entry level and most people could get one at the age of 16 and would just shadow someone on the first day then crack on. The government should be looking into this. A L2 qualification in retail as well. That is a waste of paper when all you will be doing is working full time in a shop and being underpaid.

My nephew is doing an apprenticeship in some kind of electrical shop ,i think he's being paid minimum wage though
How does it work how much are they suppose to earn?
I'm.old enough to remember YTS I never did one ,but some were proper rip off., s

Sounds like a rip off. I did work experience at 16 in a shop. I just served everyone, got no special 'insights', picked it up in a day then was left to my own devices.

They got entirely free labour for 3 weeks.

@wecoudlofhaditall
I also worked in Debenhams! A bit different - wasn't unpaid but I was supposed to get 6 months training all around the store but got stuck on Menswear and Toys. Had one day at the Orlane cosmetics counter which I enjoyed and one day in the canteen. Not so fun as you had to remember that management had their tea in a different cup/mug!

@Deathraystare I was on bags /purses
Spent the whole shift tidying purses 😂
Had no till training
Put on the till ...then they got annoyed when I asked how to open a store card (nobody showed me )
Shit show

Those don't sound like a "proper" government approved apprenticeship. If they are paying the official apprenticeship wage rather than legal minimum wage for a 16 year old then that does sound very dodgy.
A proper apprenticeship in retail should be learning everything from starting at the shop floor up to management (I'm not sure if an apprenticeship like that even exists).
@wecoudlofhaditall as you are an adult they would have to pay you the full minimum wage though so if all the staff only get minimum wage it wouldn't be any different.

Yes. Retail, Customer Service, Barista, and lots of others are a complete money-making racket. If you can do an entry-level job without any qualifications, and be paid minimum wage, why should an employer be allowed to pay you less than minimum wage for a qualification that you don’t even need?

What academic qualification is needed to work in retail

Retail covers a huge area of work streams, not just people employed in Stores.
From logistics, through product development, buying, finance, HR to name a few.

A relative of my DH has just got onto a degree apprenticeship with a well known supermarket. At the end of 4 years they will have a degree. They are planning to then go into another career with their degree. Their starting salary is really good and raises each year to be around 40k It's essentially a way to get a degree with no student debt.
You need to look at level 6 apprenticeships as they are the ones that you end up with a good qualification.

That’s not what these schemes are training them for

this is a government funding grab and way of getting cheap labour

they end up with a qualification in customer service not distribution logistics

I have a level 2 certificate in hospitality and tourism. It was a one day course with a test at the end. Some first aid at work certificates are accredited as level 2 qualifications as well and only take a day with a test at the end too.

How on earth can it take a year to learn the skills for the retail equivalent? If you have learning difficulties that mean you need that long, you're not going to be able to work effectively in retail anyway.

I agree with others that I think this is a con and needs to be looked at. They appear to just be trying to avoid paying the NMW.

I did YOP - Youth Opportunites Programme, and we were asked part way through if we would transfer over to the new upcoming YTS

I found my old YOP folder out a little while ago when looking for certificates.

Moneywise I didn’t do too badly, in our first week of familiarisation at the YOP office we were all comparing our final dole payments as we all obtained the final payment up to x date plus extra. We didn’t get to the bottom of it and the staff didn’t know why, so assumed it to be a ‘sign off bonus’ possibly to give people an initial amount to tide over to the first week/months pay statement.

I particularly remembered that as my folder contained my time sheets & travel sheets. Most of us invested in bus season tickets, but the YOP system didn’t allow us to claim our travel expenses that way. We had to claim for the price of a return bus ticket for the days that we were signed off on our time sheets - thus supplementing income with the difference. (My work placement, the YOP office and college all had the same bus route)
We did raise it a few times to make sure that we weren’t going to get caught out by the system finding us over claiming against actual expenses ……. Perhaps the YTS fixed the failure in the process