Aug 24 / Lucy Crowther, BRC Learning Director

Creating a future for retail learning and development

Retail is facing a once in a lifetime challenge. The future of our sector depends on the actions of our people. We at BRC Learning are taking on this challenge as we're passionate in ensuring every retail leader has the tools required to make a difference.
Despite the many external distractions, we must remember that retail is a people business. It's a unique industry in that it impacts every single household and is the UK's largest private sector employer.
For an organisation to survive this pandemic it'll require its people to be at their best. They'll need resilience, agility and to have the exceptional leadership skills required to manage through continuous change.
Within BRC Learning, we understand this as we ourselves are retailers. Amongst our team we have over 60 years retail experience:

  • Lucy Crowther – Director of BRC Learning and former Group HR Director at Card Factory
  • Terry Lees - Head of Leadership Development & Learning Events and former Store Manager at M&S
  • Ralph La Fontaine - Head of Careers and Learning and former Managing Director at learning specialists AVADO
  • Jagjeet Doheley - Learning Services Manager and former E-Learning Manager at Caffè Nero

We therefore feel a responsibility to play a key role in the recovery of our industry. As part of this we are hand crafting a range of tools to provide your leaders with the skills and knowledge they need to re-build our sector. We will not be providing generic ‘management courses’ but targeted retail specific learning experiences to support your talented leaders to help your business move forward.

A SENSE OF COMMUNITY

A second recurring theme uncovered during our webinar series was the need for community. We often see within our residential leadership programmes that delegates learn as much from each other as they do from our content. They also develop lifetime connections that are critical during times like these.

“If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together”
The All Black Code

We're therefore taking the first steps in creating the sectors first Learning & Development community. Our aim is to provide a platform to those whose focus is on the development of our people.

Together we will discuss the needs of our sector and how BRC Learning, as the industry’s training organisation, can support these needs. By forming a community, we've the opportunity to share our collective knowledge, insights and experiences.

Together we can protect the industry we know and love. Make sure to sign up to our newsletter to keep up to date with the latest updates, insights and fresh ideas from us and our industry experts.