Apprenticeships

On this apprenticeship, you’ll learn excellent customer service skills and behaviours, along with product and/or service knowledge to share with customers. As a Customer Service Practitioner, your actions will directly influence customers’ experience and their satisfaction with your brand. You'll deliver high-quality products and services to customers from stores, online, or by visiting them.

Retailers help customers buy products or services from businesses. As a Retailer apprentice, you’ll develop your understanding of the stock being sold by your business. You’ll also learn all the ways customers can shop and how to process payments. To be successful in this role, you’ll enjoy meeting a wide range of people and be motivated by completing a sale, knowing a customer is happy with their purchase. You must be keen to deliver quality service and always aim to exceed customers’ expectations.

As a Customer Service Specialist, you’ll be an authority for customer support in your business. You’ll be an advocate for great customer service, acting as a referral point for dealing with more complex or technical customer requests, complaints, and queries. On this apprenticeship programme, you’ll become an expert in your brand’s products and services. You’ll also learn to collect and analyse customer data and information, using this to influence change and improvements in service.

Business Administrators have highly transferable knowledge, skills and behaviours that can be useful across many types of organisations. As a Business Administrator, you’ll be developing, implementing and improving administrative services to add value to a business. Your work will contribute to the efficiency of the organisation, by supporting functional areas, working across teams and resolving issues. You’ll also develop key skills to support your progression to management responsibilities.

A Fashion Studio Assistant is a key position in the design team. Studying this apprenticeship, you’ll get experience in both the product and commercial sides of a brand. You’ll develop your understanding of how a design team functions and how a clothing collection is made, marketed and sold. You’ll start the programme in the studio, learning how collections are created. Then, you’ll spend 12 months in a more focused area of the business such as product development and production, sales and operations; or marketing and communications.

Team Leaders or Supervisors have operational and project responsibilities and manage a team to deliver a clearly defined outcome for a business. They provide direction, instruction and guidance to ensure that business goals are achieved. Responsibilities can include supporting the team, managing team members and projects, planning and monitoring workloads and resources, delivering operational plans, resolving problems and building relationships internally and externally. 

Team Leaders or Supervisors have operational and project responsibilities and can be responsible for managing a team to deliver a clearly defined outcome for a business. You’ll explore a wide range of retail topics such as legislative considerations, financial measures, stock handling, marketing, technology and team performance including diversity and personal development. Responsibilities can include supporting the team, managing team members and projects, planning and monitoring workloads and resources, delivering operational plans, resolving problems, and building relationships internally and externally

A Digital Marketer creates and implements digital campaigns across a variety of online and social media platforms to drive customer acquisition, engagement and retention, and build brand awareness. A Digital Marketer works within a marketing team and assists with the overall marketing plan or campaigns, working to marketing briefs. They work across a variety of mediums, including social media platforms, email campaigns and SEO, and ensure that a brand’s digital marketing strategy is effective and adaptable. 

Buying and Merchandising Assistants work together to create clothing collections that meet brand sales and profit targets. On this apprenticeship programme, the buying modules teach you the skills to work alongside suppliers to select and purchase new products for a collection. The merchandising modules teach you to create and analyse product sales and performance reports. You’ll learn to identify trends and trading patterns, communicating your findings as needed.

Retail managers are in charge of creating a positive experience in their stores, so shoppers become loyal, repeat customers and ultimately help the brand achieve its sales targets. Studying this apprenticeship, you’ll develop your skills in business and people management, and use these to support the vision and objections of a brand. You’ll learn how to maximise income and minimise wastage within a retail store. You’ll also learn how to support a team of staff with their personal development, encouraging them to develop their own skills to further improve business performance and productivity. 

Data analysis is essential for all fashion businesses, and a Data Analyst Apprenticeship will teach you how data can be used to answer questions and solve problems for brands. Data analysis is a process of gathering, cleansing, transforming and modelling data with the goal of discovering useful findings, informing conclusions and supporting decision-making. Data analysts play a crucial role in the evidence-based decision-making process, help organisations run more effectively, as well as ensure that security measures, GDPR and ethical responsibilities are all adhered to.  

Product Technologists provide technical support throughout the product development process and ensure that products are created to the exact specifications required. They ensure that production instructions and patterns are in place and that the manufacturing of garments is completed to the best standard, on time, and within budget. Working with designers, buyers, merchandisers, pattern cutters, and production managers, Product Technologists will handle the technical and commercial elements of the product development cycle in a fast-moving environment.

Corporate Responsibility & Sustainability (CR&S) Practitioners play a key role in a business where environmental practices, sustainability and social responsibility are at the forefront of the strategy. CR&S Practitioners help innovate and drive ambitions for social and environmental change and made sure that the strategies are embedded and implemented across the business. The role could also encompass diversity, inclusion, health and safety, and well-being, and CR&S Practitioners will typically be working on multiple initiatives covering a variety of focus areas.

Operations or Department Managers manage teams and projects and know how to achieve goals and objectives that are part of the organisation’s strategy. They support their team with personal objectives and develop their own skills in business and people management to support the goals of the business. Key responsibilities can include creating and delivering operational plans, managing projects, leading and managing teams, financial and resource management, talent management, and mentoring. 

As an Assistant Buyer or Merchandiser, you’ll have a deep understanding of your brand and customer. You’ll use this to source, maintain and deliver the right products to meet demand and business objectives. By developing your forecasting, risk analysis, creative and business skills, you’ll anticipate and shape market trends. The Buying pathway focuses on identifying and sourcing the right products and services for the organisation to sell to customers. The Merchandising pathway is all about making sure that the right products are available to customers in the right place, at the right time and in the right quantities.

Senior Leaders set, manage and monitor the achievement of core goals that contribute to the objectives of their organisation, and ensure that these goals are achieved. They interact with stakeholders including team members, other senior leaders/managers, support services and project groups. Depending on the size of the organisation, a Senior Leader may handle reporting results relating to their area of responsibility to a Board, trustees, shareholders, executive team or to other senior management within the organisation.