As outlined in Chapter 3 the FdA in Retailing was established to meet the needs of the retail sector (see page 116). A Government funded body Foundation Degree Forward (FdF) had responsibility for supporting the development and validation of Foundation Degrees (Forward, 2005) including the FdA in Retailing in partnership with other appointed members of the steering committee, the case organisation who piloted the programme, the delivering institutions and software designers. The three findings chapters trace the FdA in retailing from the programmes launch in September 2007 to the autumn of 2012, although reference is made, in the contextual chapter, to earlier periods when Foundation Degrees were first founded. The findings form three consecutive chapters. The first explores the broader macro context, the formation of the degree and launch of the pilot programme, induction of students onto the FdA in Retailing and student expectations for the programme. The second chapter examines the challenges faced by students going through the programme. The final chapter evaluates the merits of the programme from an organisational and individual perspective. The central findings concerning the broader macro context and establishment of the degree come, primarily from an interview conducted with an FdF Director just prior to the abolition of FdF in October 2010. Added later in the section are the findings from other stakeholder groups. The findings revealed that ELH, were unable to adequately position the qualification within their existing talent development strategies for store management, raising questions as to why ELH would pursue a qualification which clearly added little value.
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5.1 Establishing a Foundation Degree for the Retail Sector
Foundation Degrees were designed in association with employees to equip people with the relevant skills, knowledge and understanding to achieve academic results as well as improve performance and productivity in the work place. Their remit was to increase the professional and technical skills of employees within a particular job or profession (UCAS, 2015). A number of large employers already provided FDs to their employees including; NHS, Network Rail, RAF, Rolls Royce, TUI, in fact FDs can be found in most sectors of employment. However, less apparent were the difficulties encountered when trying to establish a Foundation Degree that meets the needs of a particular sector rather than a standalone organisation. The FdA in Retailing was benchmarked against the Skillsmart Retail Foundation Degree Framework, developed in partnership with major retailers and the Sector Skills Council. According to Caspian (FdF Director) the document was “quite substantive” and included “a wide interrogation of employer needs” (Caspian, FdF Director) as outlined in Chapter 3. However, he found the majority of retailers reluctant to collaborate; share information and trial work based learning initiatives, unlike those of other sectors such as engineering and information technology. Historically, both these sectors have a good record of accomplishment when it comes to investing in training and development but he also found that companies including; BT, Vodaphone, O2, HP, Akina and Erricson had “no great worries about sharing information” and working collectively on educational provision for their sector. According to Caspian, these organisations acknowledged they were going to get labour mobility across the sector, but if training and education provision was right then everyone gains. Both engineering and IT competed in global markets where collaboration amongst large and small companies is normal. Thus cooperating at national level on strengthening
176 the skill base was not surprising. In addition, the sectors referred to belonged to established professional bodies that encouraged collaboration, for example the Engineering council. They, for example, stated that all aspiring engineers and technicians should have access to world-class education and training programmes to help them develop industry-relevant knowledge, skills and behaviours. The Council worked closely with the Government and Higher Education bodies to ensure that standards of UK engineering degrees were maintained within the European Higher Educational arena as part of the Bologna Agreement. The sector skills council representing the retail sector was People 1st7 after they acquired two of Skillsmarts
retail assets. Compared to its engineering counterpart, People 1st do not have the
same professional standing or academic influence. Reflected in the comments made by Caspian’s (FdF Director) when describing the retail sectors attitude to education and skills:
Dare I say as a sector it is not very mature about understanding this agenda…..they are all a bit bullish, they think what they are doing is really unique…but in reality they are doing pretty much the same stuff (Caspian, FdF
Director).
As mentioned in Chapter 3, UK VET has had a chequered history; it has been successful in some sectors, for example engineering however, in the retail sector there has been no tradition of vocational learning, jobs are predominantly low skilled with employees being less qualified than in other sectors.
7 People 1st are a charitable organisation set up by the government (quango) to identify employers
needs and work in partnership with them to develop solutions that increase performance through people in the hospitality, tourism, leisure, travel, passenger transport and retail industries.
177 UK Retailing split across eight different areas (grocery, fashion, department stores home and DIY, electrical, health and beauty, general merchandise and entertainment and generalists) appear to have concerns about the sharing of information relating to education and skills. For example, there has been brutal competition between supermarkets, with the major four scrambling to maintain market share whilst also competing with the discount retailers (Smith, 2014). It has therefore been price and service rather than skill and innovation pushing the sector forward, thus making collaboration less likely. In addition, there appears little likelihood of cross sector collaboration between different retail groups:
Having been in the sector five years or so I think that there is resistance to something that is derived from the grocery retailing sector as being seen as fit for purpose for the others (Caspian, FdF Director)
Rather than promoting the FdA in Retailing to other retailers, the former FdF Director suggested that a separate dialogue was required to address their skill needs so that something new could be developed specifically for them. He acknowledged that there had not been transferability to fashion or to department store retailers such as John Lewis or Marks and Spencer, or to that of small retailers:
There has not been and never will be in my view transfer across to small retailers, I think we would just be really optimistic if we could hit small retailers with a provision of this type (Caspian, FdF Director).
178 When establishing the FdA in Retailing the FdF Director maintained his organisation did try to create a programme that had wider sector appeal however admitted, “you
are always caught between the devil and the deep blue sea”. Small retailers
undertake very little training, so this would automatically rule out large numbers of employees eligible to study for this qualification. Rather scathingly, the FdF Director suggested that employees within this group would be better suited to Mary Portas8
type training. Next considered, is the selection of the pilot organisation and the ramifications of choosing just one organisation to lead on a qualification supposedly designed for the retail sector.