First Graduation Ceremony for the Apprenticeship in Retail Supervision Programme held

Retail Ireland, the Ibec group that represents the retail industry, hosted the Apprenticeship in Retail Supervision inaugural graduation ceremony on Friday 13th of May at the Athlone Springs Hotel. 

The event was a great success with 60 apprentices graduating from the programme and over 200 guests in attendance. Keynote speakers of the event were Minister of State for Business, Employment and Retail, Damien English T.D., Chair of Retail Ireland and Managing Director of Aramark, Shane Flynn,  and Dr. Mary Liz Trant, Interim Director National Apprenticeship Office. The graduation marked an occasion dedicated to acknowledging the achievements of the graduates along with retail employer organisations, workplace mentors, tutors, graduates’ friends and family and the wider retail sector. 

Commenting at the graduation, Retail Ireland Skillnet Programme Director Dr Oran Doherty said: “The apprenticeship programme has gone from strength to strength. The outcome and the results seen by employers has been extremely positive and companies are coming back looking for more places. When we started in 2019, we had 24 employers, in our new intake we will have 67 employers. Every employer is now looking to get on this programme, it's seen as the best supervisory programme for the whole retail sector.”