Supermarket giant Asda has announced that it is adding to
its range of graduate
training schemes, by helping graduates to fast-track to store managers in
just a year.
The scheme, which starts in September, will see 15 graduates
gain skills that will enable them to manage up to 30 colleagues in Asda’s
smaller format supermarkets.
The group of trainees will then go on to take up store
manager roles in one of Asda’s 175 supermarkets in October 2013.
Asda already runs a successful graduate scheme where
participants spend two years in the company’s large stores, distribution
centres or the firm’s head office.
41 graduate trainee jobs are also offered across nine areas
including marketing, store development, legal, property and finance.
In 2011 the company launched the Asda Skills Academy
offering a vocational alternative to university through an accredited programme
of apprenticeship. This sees apprentices working in departments such as fresh
food and customer service.
Commenting on the initiative, Asda people director Hayley
Tatum said: “Through the course of this fast-track scheme, our trainees will
not only be given first class training and be exposed to every element of the
Asda business, but they will also quickly be making decisions that will make a
real difference to thousands of customers every week.”
To be eligible for the Asda Graduate fast-track scheme graduates
must hold a 2:2 degree. This is in contrast to the 75% of graduate employers
who require a minimum of a 2:1 degree before they consider candidates for
graduate jobs.
Carl Gilleard,
the chief executive of the Association of Graduate Recruiters (AGR), argues
that this stipulation is the result of the fiercely competitive graduate job
market: "It's to do with the significant increase in the number of
applications that businesses have been receiving. When you're recruiting 100
graduates – and multiply that by 70-odd applications per job – you've got a
significant logistical challenge."