The Retail and Enterprise pathway will teach you all about money handling, stock control, visual merchandising and customer service.
Do you love interacting with people? Do you have a good eye for detail? You will learn great customer service, money handling, stock control, visual merchandising and much more on our Retail and Enterprise pathway.
As a Retail and Enterprise student, you will also develop your communication and presentation skills whilst gaining work experience in our retail outlets. We have on-site outlets and an eBay shop where you can be involved with setting up listings and managing online sales.
Our Retail and Enterprise students also have plenty of opportunity to create some of the items for sale. We have our own screen-printing service where students can create gift items such as bags and cards for our gift shop.
“I have had a great time in Retail while I’ve been at Derwen. Retail has helped me become more confident with customers, improved my IT skills, and has helped me prepare for work after college.” Joe
Some of the skills you will learn include:
- Customer service
- Checking till floats and cashing up after trading
- Using different equipment, tills and vocational apps
- Stock control and rotation
- Sales to customers and businesses
- Fulfilling orders and money handling
- Online sales through the Derwen shop and Ebay
- Visual merchandising
Work experience
We have a number of public-facing outlets where our students gain valuable work skills and experience. These outlets include:
Garden Centre and Gift Shop
Our Garden Centre and Gift Shop doesn’t just sell plants! We sell gifts for the home, greeting cards, items made by local artists, and a variety of food items. Our students get involved in seasonal displays such as Valentine’s Day, Easter, Halloween, and at Christmas time, they make up hampers of our Derwen-made jams and chutneys for people to buy as gifts.
The Vintage Advantage Charity Shop
The popular Vintage Advantage Charity Shop provides work experience for students. Retail and Enterprise students sort through donated items, cleaning them and putting displays together in the shop and online. Our students also process sales and help customers.
External work experience
As students become more confident on-site, we have a good network of local businesses that provide external work placements, for example at local charity shops, Spar and Co-op. Retail and enterprise students also sell Derwen-made produce at the weekly Oswestry Market.
You will have many other opportunities as a Retail and Enterprise Pathway student. This could include taking part in annual competitions or getting involved in charity and community events. Students take part in bag packing at Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Morrisons which also raises money for Derwen College Charity.
“Derwen is very, very, very good – I love it to bits! Working in Retail has helped me to be more independent to work with customers and improve my skills in ICT.” Mary
“Derwen College is amazing, I met new friends and learnt new skills. Working on the till has helped my confidence in Retail and I love going to Spar on my Work Placement.” Courtney
All these skills open up a host of work opportunities and can work really well as a main or linked pathway.
Typical outcomes
- Vocational qualification up to Level 1
- Functional Skills qualification up to Level 2
- Subject-specific qualifications; such as BTEC in Vocational Study, Entry Level 3/Level 1
- Experience in:
- internal and external workplaces
- local and national competitions
- community and national events
Link Pathways
Students studying on a vocational pathway at our Gobowen site, can choose one linked pathway to go alongside their main area if they wish to (they don’t have to).
If students choose a link pathway, they will spend up to half a day a week in the chosen link area. Please note that qualifications are undertaken only in the main pathway area.
All students can choose enrichment sessions from all areas, whether they have a link pathway or not.
If you choose Retail & Enterprise as a link pathway you will:
- Spend up to half a day a week within Retail & Enterprise;
- Undertake internal work experience.
Possible next steps after College
- Paid work
- Voluntary work
- Local college or training programme
- Supported living