Morrisons is launching 1,000 new apprenticeships with the aim of building its next generation of store leaders and protect specialist fresh food skills.
Its new Proper Jobs: Fresh Start Programme will offer 1,000 young people a fully funded qualification and route into management by 2030, with roles spanning its stores, logistics operations, manufacturing sites and head office.
The two-year programme will begin with recruits spending 13 weeks working as a Morrisons store colleague before progressing onto a 12-month apprenticeship in areas including retail, hospitality, butchery, fishmongery and bakery.
Those completing the apprenticeship and assessment will then have the opportunity to join a six-month programme at the Sir Ken Morrison Leadership School.
The supermarket said the scheme would help tackle skills shortages in specialist fresh food roles and preserve traditional trades that underpin its Market Street proposition.
Morrisons claims to be the UK’s largest provider of craft apprenticeships, with recruits set to work alongside experienced butchers, bakers and fishmongers.
Group people director Jodie Keating said the programme would give young people the opportunity to “earn, learn and build lasting careers”, while creating a clearer pipeline into management roles across the business.
She said recruits could ultimately progress to running a supermarket, managing a logistics depot or leading teams within Morrisons’ Myton manufacturing operation and central functions.
Morrisons has reportedly invested more than £20million in colleague apprenticeships to date and recruited more than 20,000 new employees during the past 12 months, of which 48 per cent were aged between 16 and 24.
Almost 500 young people are currently enrolled in its leadership and early careers programmes, while 41 per cent of those attending the Morrisons Leadership School are under 29.
It will also support an initial 100 young people through the Government’s Youth Guarantee scheme, targeted at those who are not in education, employment or training and have been receiving Universal Credit for an extended period.
Earlier this year Morrisons agreed a staged pay increase that will take its established customer assistant hourly rate to £13.11 from October.
Applications for the first Fresh Start places will open in Yorkshire in September, before the programme expands as Morrisons works towards its 1,000-apprentice target.
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