Stir up talent in the milk round

As students settle in to the new academic year at school, college or university, retailers are working hard to capture their interest as potential employees, whether by trying to engage them while still at school or through fresher fairs at university.

Superdrug has just completed a tour of nine universities in an adapted London bus, handing out goodie bags and student discounts, holding make-up demonstrations and consultations on minor health problems. Remembering that students are consumers as well as potential employees is important to engaging this audience.

Student promotion

At St David’s shopping centre in Cardiff, an out-of-hours student 20% off promotion was a huge success, attracting about 4,000 students who smashed retailers’ sales forecasts for the evening, especially at student favourite Superdry.

While these tactics may primarily be about winning student spend, it also opens them up to the idea of working for retail companies in the future.

Earlier this month Superdrug was also one of the retailers exhibiting at Skills London 2010, an event aimed at showing young people aged 14-19 in the capital and Southeast the huge range of careers, training, educational options and skills opportunities available to them.

To coincide with the event, vocational training body City & Guilds launched a Facebook app to tempt people to train for a career. The app - ‘My Perfect Job’ - is designed to inspire young adults, helping them realise what opportunities are available and providing details on how to pursue their dream careers. The teenagers complete a multiple choice quiz, which collates and assesses their answers to provide the types of jobs they are likely to enjoy or thrive in. The users are then provided with information on their perfect job and shown videos of people in their chosen professions where appropriate.

Speaking at the Big Skills Debate at this month’s Skills London 2010 event, retail guru Theo Paphitis said the UK risked being left behind if it did not start publicising and celebrating its home-grown skills. He said: “I’m sick of seeing celebrity wannabes, footballers, WAGs, even dogs and cats, getting more media attention than the talented youngsters who are earning and learning right now. They make a massive difference to our lives and to UK plc. They’re our future entrepreneurs and without their skills this country would grind to a halt.”