JOHN LEWIS VISIT FOR CAREER ACADEMY

Posting by Ranjit Hayer, Business teacher and Career Academy Manager
Our Year 13 Business Career Academy students visited the John Lewis National Returns Centre this week. The students undertook the visit to see how one of the leading UK's retailers operates the returns aspect of its business.

The students were given a short history of John Lewis, including learning about the firm’s unique style of partnership of all employees, which came about from the son of the original John Lewis called John Sedan Lewis. He became known (and preferred to be called) Sedan Lewis to disassociate himself from his father. The students were fascinated to hear of his management style, for he was reputed to have a temper and was very easily angered!

The students also learnt about the development of a huge new store opening above Birmingham New Street Station and how John Lewis has repositioned themselves in the market and expanded their Waitrose supermarket stores.

The students were given a guided tour round the depot to see what happens when products are returned to the John Lewis, once they are deemed faulty or simply returned when bought online.

The students were also searched as they left the premises by a device that chooses people at random for security checks! This practice is due to the high value of goods that come through John Lewis on a day to day basis

It was a fascinating visit and the students enjoyed it. Thanks go to the staff at John Lewis for giving up their time to host us. Retail is a huge business sector, so it’s really valuable for the students to get a taste of what goes on behind the scenes.

Away from the Business Career Academy, the students’ A level counterparts took part in a sticklebrick activity this week, in which they learnt about non-financial methods of motivation. The task involved job rotation, in which students were divided into groups and given tasks to complete, then swapped over and repeated each others tasks. The students were then set a larger group task to design towers with sticklebricks. This involved teamwork, which the students all preferred, as it meant that they could develop their own ideas, which is often used in business as a way of developing teams.