Retail: Leeds Metropolitan aims to improve retail industry

LEEDS Metropolitan University is attempting to up-skill the retail industry by launching a dedicated Masters degree, as experts highlight the potential of the sector.

According to two retail experts, Matthew Lewis, partner and head of retail for Squire Sanders, and Rupert Eastell, head of retail for Baker Tilly, the retail industry needs to find ways to reduce churn – thereby reducing the costs of recruitment and training – and for more people to consider the sector as an option for a viable, long-term career with progression opportunities.

Lewis said: “People see retail as essentially just working in a shop and maybe they could progress to shop manager. What they don’t see are the buyer, marketing, branding, distribution or overseas opportunities.

“There is a wide and varied career to be had in retail and those who take the opportunity do benefit from having had the shop floor experience and customer contact.”

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Leeds Met’s omni channel retail Masters degree, which it is running in collaboration with consultancy firm BlueFin Solutions, will start in September 2014.

Cathy Barnes, professor of retail innovation at Leeds Met, said: “The issue is that a lot of retail companies a consultancy like BlueFin work with just don’t have the skills to do the work that’s needed within the business. We are working together to up-skill the industry.”

Barnes and Baker Tilly’s Eastell said the industry has a long way to go improve its reputation and a lot still needs to be done so people see it as an aspirational career choice, describing it as “an industry that needs many foot soldiers at the base of the pyramid and not everyone can climb the ladder to become chief executive”.

Retail is a sector that experiences high employee churn rates and where the vast majority of staff are on lower pay. The industry employs nearly 2.8m people and makes up around 11% of the total UK workforce – but of those, 1.6m earn less than £8 an hour, according to research company Datamonitor.

Eastell said in order to motivate and retain staff, encouragement and development are important.

“I like the idea of treating your staff as you do your customers. Creating success in both areas starts at the top,” he said.

Eastell said the way a retailer looks at its business – by channel or as a customer – is at the heart of the retail skills and training debate.

“If you put the customer at the heart of how the business operates then the staff and management will follow this in their behaviour,” he added.