Henderson Group, the leading retailer and owners of the SPAR, EUROSPAR and VIVO brands in Northern Ireland, has announced its latest intentions to further grow the future of retail in Northern Ireland with Business Experience Placements.

The Placements aim to bring second year university degree students into roles within the company for one year, giving them vital employment and skills experience upon graduation.

From July 2019, Henderson’s will offer a total of six placements throughout the Group’s companies, ranging from Henderson Foodservice to Technology and Wholesale.

The initiative will also offer one placement within Henderson Wholesale’s Fresh Foods Team as Retail Food-to-Go Development Executive, as the company continues to grow its niche food-to-go and deli offering throughout its 450+ retail outlets.

Applications are open now on the Henderson Group’s Careers webpage, remaining open until 17 February. Students can also apply for the positions through the careers pages of their own university.

The placements are open to all second year students, are for one year and will begin on 29th July 2019. Henderson Group has partnered with Ulster University, Queen’s University Belfast, the Open University and CAFRE’s Loughry Campus to launch the initiative.

Glen Young, Talent Acquisition Specialist at Henderson Group commented; “At Henderson Group, we believe investing in the development of talent is crucial to the future of our business. The opportunities that we can provide are within a thriving learning environment that is second to none, and we are excited to nurture the future of our industry.”

Henderson Group will invest over £90,000 in training, salaries and an abundance of learning opportunities for the placement students, whose roles will include Business Analyst in IT Henderson Wholesale, Business Transformation Executive, Trading Assistant and Marketing & Communications Executive at Henderson Foodservice, and Software Development Lead in Henderson Technology.

As well as undertaking their placement roles, the successful students will also be tasked with completing a group project based on a real-life scenario which they will then present collectively to a board of senior managers.

Glen continued; “The brief will be designed to give the students first-hand experience of the challenges they will meet in a high-pressured working environment.”

The selected students will be welcome to take part in Henderson Group’s continued support of local charities and community initiatives, as well as attending Group-wide conferences and team building days. They will each be given monthly catch-up sessions with a dedicated mentor to evaluate their progress and share success stories. It is envisioned that the feedback collected from these sessions will help the Group continue to develop and improve their placement programme for future participants.

Henderson Group companies have achieved Gold Accredited Investors in People status and have been recognised with numerous awards including Grocer’s Gold Employer of the Year 2018 and Deloitte Best Managed Company Gold Standard for Henderson Foodservice.

Henderson Group currently employs over 3,300 across Northern Ireland, throughout its Wholesale, Property, Retail, Technology and Foodservice companies and network of over 450 SPAR, EUROSPAR, VIVO, VIVOXTRA and VIVO Essentials stores.

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