Date published 5 February 2021

The Department for Education released a UK wide survey report in March 2020 saying that apprentices expressed an 86% satisfaction rate with over 90% saying that they felt they had gained skills directly both related to their job as well as transferable skills that could be applied in any role. This included personable skills such as communication and team working, too.

Apprenticeships at Marshalls

Early Careers is something we are proud to promote and develop within Marshalls. We work with several local colleges and training providers offering work experience placements and apprenticeship opportunities for people starting out on their career journey. 

Our head office works closely with local colleges in West Yorkshire to deliver many Apprenticeship programmes such as Engineering, New Product Development, Logistics, Marketing, Digital and more:

  • We have been involved in Greenhead College’s Placement and Work Shadowing Scheme (PAWS) for many years now, which provides students in their first year of college a full week shadowing professionals within Marshalls and some project work. 
  • We also work very closely with Kirklees College to deliver several Apprenticeship Programmes, ranging from Mechatronic Maintenance Technicians to Customer Service advisors.

Further afield, we also work with providers from Bedford College, Manchester Metropolitan University, Wolverhampton University, London South Bank University, Hartlepool College and The Open University, helping us expand our development of colleagues and young persons across the UK. 

In 2020, despite the coronavirus pandemic, Marshalls managed to invest 54.9% more on different apprenticeships compared to 2019. We also invested in a whole host of skills, from digital to engineering, and accounting to project management. 2020 saw the largest investment into leadership apprenticeships that Marshalls has ever made in one year.

Growing Our Own

The best thing about apprenticeships is that anyone has the potential to earn this qualification. They are no longer just about employing school or college leavers into their first job. They’re for everyone.

Marshalls believe it shouldn’t matter what level you’re at, how old you are or how long you have been with the business, they should be open for everyone. We’ve taken strides to encourage our employees to learn and develop skills that are related to their current job.
Laura Ogden, moved from her sales role to an apprenticeship back in 2018:
"I have worked for Marshalls since 2014, however, I decided to apply for an apprenticeship to change my career and move into Digital Marketing.

This decision has been the best thing I could have done, Marshalls have given me continued support through my studies and the apprenticeship scheme has allowed me to utilise skills that I already have whilst gaining knowledge in the industry through hands-on experience.”

Laura is now a Marketing Assistant at Marshalls and has nearly completed her Digital Marketing Degree Apprenticeship course. As a former apprentice, here’s what Pete Hallitt, Group Trading Director had to say about apprenticeships:

“Apprenticeships is something that is very close to my heart, I started my career on one a long-long time ago, and I know how valuable it was to me in the early stages of my career and latterly - it gave me a very broad springboard of which to start my career.

The great thing about apprenticeship now is that they’ve changed enormously so that pretty much anyone could start them at any age, and there is such a good range of science-based and management-based subjects for people to choose from. In hindsight, the apprenticeship I achieved could be considered quite basic to today’s standards, as now you can complete one with all varying levels of qualification, which is great.

It’s good to see that Marshalls’ five-year strategy is underpinned by people and talent development, it’s clear we recognise our people as our most valuable asset and apprenticeships are a critical part of developing our people“

To find out more about apprenticeships at Marshalls, please visit our Apprenticeship page, here.

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