Woolworths Opens Doors To Disadvantaged

Woolworths Growth Academy is a trailblazing 12-18 month career development programme aimed at both current employees as well as unemployed and underemployed previously disadvantaged graduates. The programme tackles the shortage of skills that plagues the local retail industry and imparts Woolworths values of quality and style, value, innovation, service, integrity, energy and sustainability.

The initiative is benchmarked against the best programmes of its kind in the world. It offers unemployed and underemployed graduates a unique opportunity to work across all departments at Woolworths and earn a post graduate academic qualification from the University of Stellenbosch Business School.

Simon Susman, CEO of Woolworths says: “Woolworths has long invested in local talent through a range of learning interventions for our own employees and external candidates. We have, however, grown increasingly concerned about the rates of graduate unemployment and the shortage of specialist skills in the local market. We cannot sit back and wish these problems away. We have done something about it in partnership with the Wholesale and Retail SITA and the University of Stellenbosch.”

“Our Growth Academy aims to groom the future leaders of our company and industry and open the door to previously disadvantaged talent in our industry. Woolworths talent development teams have worked closely with leading learning specialists to ensure that the programme offers candidates a deep understanding of our industry and is nothing short of a master class in retail,” adds Susman.

The Growth Academy launches with 20 graduates. Candidates were sourced both externally and internally and underwent a rigorous interview process. The second phase of the recruitment is underway. An additional pool of 19 graduates from outside Woolworths will be recruited for this inaugural Growth Academy class. 4 additional graduates will be recruited from Woolworths.

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