Kingfisher unveils new apprenticeship target for 2030

Kingfisher, the international home improvement retailer, has announced a new target for 20,000 colleagues to have completed an apprenticeship, traineeship or formal qualification by 2030. The announcement comes after Kingfisher exceeded its current learning ambition two years early, with colleagues completing over 6.6 million skills for life learning hours since 2019/20, ahead of its target of five million hours by 2025. The target is designed to reflect an even greater focus on “helping colleagues to grow their careers through high-quality learning programmes with a deep individual impact”. This includes schemes offering inclusive opportunities for young people to begin their careers with Kingfisher and its banners. To achieve the new target, Kingfisher will continue to invest in a wide range of programmes across its business and banners. Last year, over 4,000 colleagues took part in an apprenticeship or traineeship, with courses covering a variety of specialisms, from retail management to software engineering and finance. Many of the programmes completed by colleagues directly support their career progression within the organisation. For example, at Screwfix 80% of store colleagues completing Level 2, 3 and 4 apprenticeships go on to become trade supervisors, assistant or branch managers. Screwfix has also recently launched an online hub ‘Trade Link’ to support tradespeople to recruit the next generation of talent. Meanwhile, B&Q is supporting the trade sector with its pledge of £1m to fund trade apprentices through transfer to transform. It is also creating inclusive learning opportunities such as by offering greater access to educational support for English and Maths to enable more colleagues to access apprenticeships, and by using the Indices of Multiple Deprivation to assess the impact of its apprenticeship programme on social mobility in the communities that it serves. Alongside a focus on learning and developing talent, Kingfisher has a commitment to improving its gender balance to 35% women in senior leadership and 40% women in management by 2025/26. Kate Seljeflot, chief people officer, said: “We strongly believe in supporting all our colleagues to develop their skills and reach their full potential. Investing in talent and building our skills base, particularly in growing priorities like digital and data, will be critical to our future success. Our new target underlines our Group-wide commitment to empowering our colleagues with new skills, developing future talent and creating inclusive opportunities for young people to enter the workplace.”