GIVE ME a boy when he is 18, says Marks & Spencer, and I will give you the deputy branch
manager. The news yesterday that John Major's son, James, just 18 and with three
disappointing A-levels, was among the 14 teenagers accepted on the M & S junior management trainees scheme came as a surprise. You would hardly expect a son of a PM to
go riding with the Huntingdon chapter of Hells Angels, or run off and join the circus, like his grandfather did... but a life on the shop floor?
"I'm an M & S trainee" is hardly an ice-breaker at parties. So why do they sign up? Certainly there is security: if all goes well, James could expect to manage a small store within eight years, and there are prospects. Perhaps one day he will follow in the footsteps of M & S
chairman Sir Richard Greenbury, who also joined the company at the age of 18.
The interview programme is rigorous. After an initial interview, groups of 12 candidates are sent for a night to a hotel. There they will perform management role-playing games, both in teams and individually, and demonstrate their ability to put forward a point of view. Four "assessors" observe their behaviour, before selecting the lucky few.
Jackie Kiernan, personnel manager for the Camberley area, says she looks for leadership, assertiveness and decisiveness in junior trainees. This year M & S received 1,200 applicants. The company was hoping to appoint 40 trainees, but only 14 came up to scratch. Press officer Sue Sadler says this may be because schools are encouraging brighter pupils into higher education without informing them of other options.
Current trainees seem to have no regrets about forgoing the attractions of being an undergraduate. Katherine Shorland, 20, from West Sussex, started the scheme a year ago, after passing three A-levels. She is now earning £14,900 a year as a personnel management trainee at the Maidstone branch, and owns a Fiat Uno, so in material terms is a lot better offthan her friends who went on to university. But does she have as much fun? "When I have to get up in the morning, I do sometimes wish I was at university," she says.
Katherine's shortest days last from eight to six "It was especially tough at first. I would get home and go straight to bed, I was so exhausted." Her boyfriend is studying at Manchester, so she spends weekends there for a slice of student life.
Katherine is now into the second stage of the training programme, where she is supervising and managing. The first stage involves working on the shop floor, operating the tills and stacking shelves, before going on to become shadow managers from the various departments. Katherine, bright and confident, chose to specialise in personnel. "I love dealing with people, and I see myself as a personnel manager with M & S in 10 years.
Yesterday morning, Tim Cooper, 22-year-old assistant manager of M & S in Camberley, Surrey, was at work by 7.50 am. He looked over the takings information before wandering down to the shop floor and checking the staff before the doors opened at nine. He then spoke on the telephone with head office, discussing which of his lines were going well - he is responsible for menswear and home furnishings - before meeting his manager.
Tim started as a trainee at 18, and, after working at five branches in the South-East, was offered a permanent position. He now earns about £20,000 a year, rents a two-bedroom flat in Clapham from the company, and drives a Ford Escort XR2. He is approaching the end of his first year as an assistant manager.
"When I started the training in September 1989 a lot of my friends, who all went to university, thought I was an idiot." Tim himself was offered five places to study business management at university, but on being offered a place on the M & S scheme decided to start work straight away.
"Now my friends look back and think I was quite shrewd. They'veall come out with huge student loans, and many have been unable to find work. And I still go to wild and raucous parties."
