The freedom to make the business
decisions you believe in

Join this eighteen-month programme, and you’ll be given exposure to a unique range of businesses, the opportunity to choose your work and real responsibility.  The programme is demanding and you'll have to work hard to earn respect, but we’ll give you the guidance that you need to become a future leader. To help you decide whether our programme is right for you we have outlined the structure of our programme.

Induction

Your first week will be a thorough introduction to The Co-operative Group. We’ll share our plans and future ambitions, while you’ll be assigned a previous graduate as a ‘buddy’ and meet managers at every level. You’ll also start building your network of contacts and discover more about our business functions.

 
Customer insight project

You can’t understand our business without understanding our customers. In this placement you’ll be asked to work together as a team of graduates, managing your own time, workload and direction to investigate a customer-related issue. During the course of your research, you’ll spend time in our retail outlets and meet our customers face-to-face, helping you to gain a deep understanding of how our business operates. As a result of your research you'll present your recommendations for improvements to senior managers and your work could have far-reaching implications across our stores and business.

For instance, our 2007 graduates benchmarked our customer refund policy against our competitors and made recommendations of how it could be improved. Their project saves the organisation approximately 2 million pounds per year.

Business projects

Throughout the programme, you’ll play a key role in shaping our future by working on high profile change initiatives that span the length and breadth of our business.

There are all kinds of areas to get involved in: from marketing and buying, to human resources and strategic planning to name but a few. Crucially too, rather than being passed from function to function, you’ll be able to choose the projects that you work on. In other words, you’ll make the experience what you want it to be and shape your own career in the process.

Whether you’re launching a new product or helping to integrate an acquired business, your projects will provide you with an opportunity to manage stakeholders, engage in successful negotiation and respond to immense challenges of change. 

Whether you are supporting others or leading a project on your own, you’ll have tough but realistic personal objectives to meet. What’s more, you’ll always have valuable exposure to senior managers through providing presentations and monthly progress reports. In fact, because we’re so confident of the quality of work our graduates undertake, we’re willing to show you some past examples of projects they have worked on - see the links to the left of the page. These examples have been taken directly from the submission forms, and will allow you a real insight into the level of responsibility, challenge and variety on offer.

In short, our programme will give you essential business, professional and industry knowledge – everything you need to become a future leader at The Co-operative Group.
 

Learning & development reviews

Your performance and progress will be reviewed after you have completed each project.  We believe it’s important to take time out and reflect on what you’ve achieved, how you’ve developed and what you still need to learn. These reviews will really help you to focus your development and boost your career.

Management development programmes

Starting with feedback from your assessment centre, your development path will draw together every aspect of your learning. You will undertake a structured development programme covering everything from commercial awareness to leadership skills. Essentially, they will give you everything you'll need to take the business forward. You’ll have a wide range of support including a mentor, a personal development plan and all the support we can offer to enable you to drive your career.

Business role

To help launch your career, you’ll undertake a six-month business role within your chosen business area. This will ensure you get the specialist skills needed to undertake a management role at the end of the programme.  Previous graduates have become Strategic Planning Analysts, Procurement Managers, Senior Marketing Managers, to name just a few of the roles. As you can see, the opportunities available are varied and we will work with you to ensure that it is the right opportunity, whichever direction you choose.