Diploma in Retail Business
The Industry
The UK's single biggest private sector employer - retail - provides around three million jobs and is a major contributor to the economy. In a given year, retail sales can amount to many billions of pounds, more than the combined economies of Portugal and Denmark!
As diverse as it is large, the sector provides enormous scope for rewarding career choices in areas such as buying, logistics, supply chain, visual merchandising, business management, marketing, accounting and IT.
If you want to work in a dynamic, exciting, fast-paced sector that is set to expand even further in the next few years, the business of retail could be right up your street.
Build essential skills and experience
The Diploma in Retail Business takes you behind the shop front to explore every stage of the retail process, from source to supply to sale. Not only that, it will equip you with an understanding of what it takes to set up and run your own business.
You will also get lots of practical experience and develop the confidence, motivation, enterprise and creativity that you will need to flourish in this ever-changing environment.
What will I learn?
The Diploma in Retail Business covers a broad range of topics, including:-
Embedded throughout these topics are essential skills and knowledge like engaging with people, technology, business administration skills, and safety and security, as well as wider issues such as globalisation, sustainability, and ethical and environmental considerations.
How is the Diploma made up?
Principal learning (subject learning you have to do)
At the heart of the Diploma are your core retail business subjects. These will teach you the main things you need to know about the sector. You will learn about the issues that are affecting the industry today, how it works and what skills you need to have to work within it.
Activities you might do in your principal learning
These are just some examples of the kind of learning you will be doing:-
At Foundation level, you will gain a broad overview of retailing and the retail environment. You will learn how important it is to be enterprising, about the retail supply chain and how retail outlets work, as well as selling techniques and customer service. You could, for example, work as part of a team, setting challenging goals and monitoring progress towards them. You might take part in a project developing a retail channel, which involves a series of investigative and creative tasks, and be supported by an online mentor. You might use role play to show how you would build positive relationships with customers.
At Higher level, you will look at the external factors that lead to change and investigate the relative merits of different retail channels. You will focus more closely on how a retail outlet's layout and presentation affect sales, and look at stock control systems and processes. You could create promotional materials for a real retail channel or develop a new brand. As a group, you might develop an extension to a product range that matches customer profiles. You could analyse a retailer's distribution chain and describe how they can maximise capacity and make it more efficient.
At Advanced level, you will look at the emerging trends driving the sector, set up and operate a retail channel of your own and study the marketing strategies of retail businesses. You will explore how visual merchandisers display products and look at the theories and models of team dynamics. You could review a marketing strategy and suggest improvements or devise a strategy for dealing with change. You might design a visual merchandising installation to meet a design brief, and then install it. You could use role play to demonstrate how you motivate people and measure team performance.
Additional and specialist learning (choices you can make)
At each level, you can develop your particular interests in retail business further by taking more specialist courses relating to your chosen subject and career ambitions.
You could, for example, learn about logistics, automotive manufacturing, leadership and management, food safety or fashion and beauty retailing.
Or you might choose a GCSE or A level in subjects like Design and Technology or Business Studies, which would help you get onto a university course.
You can also broaden your course by taking an additional subject that reflects your other interests and career ambitions - like a language, or a creative subject like Music.
Functional skills in English, Maths and ICT
Like all Diploma students, you will develop a good standard of English, Maths and ICT. These subjects are essential to succeed in any business or learning environment, whether you decide to continue in the retail business sector or not.
Personal, learning and thinking skills
All Diploma students will develop personal, learning and thinking skills, such as team-working, creative thinking and self-management. These are vital skills in both life and work, and will be useful to you in the future, no matter which path you take.
Work experience
Your Diploma will give you the opportunity to do at least 10 days' work experience. This could be in a large retail chain of high street stores or with a small independent retailer, shadowing a visual merchandiser or a buyer for a department store. Whatever you do, this is a great way to use the knowledge, understanding and skills you have learnt in the classroom, and experience what work is like from the inside.
Student projects
During your Diploma, you will complete a student project to demonstrate the skills and knowledge that you have learnt.
You might decide to explore the ethics of sourcing products from international manufacturers, or you could design a new retailer to enter into the UK market, or compare how a range of online retailers promote and sell their products.
What a Diploma will lead to
A Diploma in Retail Business will give you the skills you need for either university or work, and is a first step towards a career in the sector.
It could lead you to a university degree in business and management, logistics or retail buying. Or it could help you begin a career in health and safety, HR, packaging or product design, sales or visual merchandising.
However, the Diploma in Retail Business doesn't mean you have to opt for a career in this sector. Because a Diploma teaches a mix of subjects, it will give you the skills that will be welcomed by colleges, universities and employers, no matter what you choose to do.
"The Diploma in Retail Business has the best opportunity to achieve the right balance of academic, subject-related and specialist subjects. With the right design and delivery, the Diploma should be a step towards addressing the skills gaps in the sector."
Cathy Hart, Senior Lecturer in Retailing, Loughborough University, Chair of the Consortium of Retail Universities and HE representative on the steering group for the Diploma in Retail Business.
Want to find out more?
To find out more about the Diploma in Retail Business, speak to your teacher or careers adviser. You can also find more information about Diplomas on these websites:-
www.direct.gov.uk/diplomas
www.connexions-direct.com
www.diplomainretailbusiness.com