When it comes to offering graduates a thorough grounding in retail, the Marks & Spencer scheme is hard to beat.
The scheme involves taking on three or four placements over the course of around 12 months. Alongside this on-the-job training, graduates receive classroom tuition, designed to help them develop expert knowledge, as well as personal skills in areas such as negotiation and leadership. And they will be making real decisions about real business issues from day one.
By the end of the scheme, they should have everything they need to take on their first big management role. That could mean leading a team of people or running an area of the business worth millions of pounds. In all likelihood, it will mean both.
Most M&S graduates join them in a store-based role, and are placed on a fast-track route into senior level retail management. If everything goes as planned, then this will mean running a small store — or a whole department of a large one — after about a year.
There are also places available in a range of head office areas, including IT, design, buying, merchandising, garment and food technology, and product development, as well as opportunities for undergraduates to do 12-month business placements.
M&S aren't just looking for any graduates. They're looking for the best around. People with the drive and ambition to make the most of all the opportunities on offer. And people who can match the energy, vision and ideas that have kept M&S at the forefront of their industry for so long.