Learning the trade

The Metro Group, which operates the Makro, Real, Media Markt and Saturn hypermarkets, has announced that it is extending its 'Metro Education' program, which teaches young people the basics of the retail trade.

The program was introduced to Polish students in 2000 as a cooperative effort between the Retail Education Center in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany, and 19 trade secondary schools in Poland. Beginning this academic year, the program will offer a chance to gain a higher education as the program's best graduates will be offered a place at the Wrocław University of Economics.

Thanks to the Metro Education program, hundreds of young people are taught basic marketing principles and operations, and learn how to use computer software for issuing invoices or handling deliveries of merchandise.

"What is important is the fact that students who graduate from the Metro program are actually interested in further developing their careers within the trade industry," said Renata Juszkiewicz, the head of the Metro Group's branch in Poland.

In addition, Juszkiewicz added that when the Group was designing the program in 2000, four years before Poland joined the EU, one of its aims was to prepare its future graduates to work outside of Poland.

The success of Poland's Metro Education program has encouraged the Metro Group to expand its scope abroad, and similar projects were begun in Russia in 2004 and in Romania this year. The project has also been recognized by the Polish Confederation of Private Employers (PKPP) Lewiatan.

"The project's development is very significant as the higher education program is now available," said Jacek Mięcina, an advisor to Lewiatan's supervisory board. "What is also very important here is that the Metro program helps its students gain skills and not just qualifications, which is something very important for their future employers."