Member Article

Acua helps House of Fraser stars to shine

Rising stars at House of Fraser can now achieve a university qualification by successfully completing the department store group’s management trainee programme.

House of Fraser’s programme for aspiring sales managers has been accredited with a Diploma in Professional Development through Acua Limited, the corporate development subsidiary of Coventry University.

The accreditation was awarded as part of House of Fraser undertaking a review of its management trainee programme with support from people development specialists Acua Limited.

The revised programme is structured into four business-focused modules designed to equip sales advisors with the skills, knowledge and experience to become successful managers.

The modules are completed over a 12-month period of store placements with on-going assignments to consolidate the learning and achieve the Diploma.

Twenty-four sales advisors based at 16 stores nationwide, from London and Glasgow to Darlington and Chichester, are the first to undertake the newly-accredited programme.

Robin Stirzaker, Learning & Development Manager at House of Fraser, said that as well as enabling trainees to gain an internationally-recognised qualification, the accreditation allowed for structured evaluation to encourage reflection and implementation of the work-based learning.

He said: “The feedback and results have been extremely encouraging with new ideas being generated to improve business.

“The aim is for the trainees to have secured managerial roles upon completion of the programme and within the first six months, six have already been promoted to sales managers which is a fantastic achievement.

“One of the main considerations in reviewing our management trainee programme was to increase the number of internal appointments.

“We want to have sales managers that we have grown internally through a development programme that reflects our core values and who are going to be highly successful in driving our business further forward.”

Peter Gross, Executive Director at House of Fraser, said: “The programme helps grow our own talent internally, developing commercially minded and customer focussed managers of the future.

“The Diploma allows them to articulate how they have applied their learning in practice, and more importantly the results they have achieved.”

Vicki Nee, client engagement manager at Acua Limited, said: “House of Fraser recognise that success starts with people and we are delighted to be helping to develop its sales managers of the future to support the growth of the business.

“The assignments towards the Diploma encourage the trainees to reflect on their learning and how they will apply it as managers in the workplace to achieve results.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Pete Squires .