‘We’re an educator, not just an employer’

McDonald’s UK invests £36 million each year in training for its staff, offering everything from basic skills to foundation degrees. The result, says the company’s JEZ LANGHORN, is more engaged, fulfilled and motivated employees and more satisfied customers

be a gap in support and educational provision that progressive employers will increasingly be called upon to make up. There was a clear call to arms in the government’s new skills strategy,

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for Sustainable Growth, which called for an increase in the uptake of apprenticeships, ‘an increasingly respected form of vocational training’. As demand from the consumer and government grows, the traditional lines between education and employment are blurring – people no longer think they should have to choose between education and employment. We need to build a new model of learning, a ‘revolving door’ between study and the workplace, making the transition between each as seamless as possible. Faced with this rise in the cost of education,

combined with a national skills shortage, more and more employers are offering high- quality training in the workplace. We at McDonald’s are committed to playing our part as an educator, not just an employer. We invest £36 million each year in training and, during the last five years, we’ve put in place a structured learning ladder for our 85,000 employees, mapped against nationally recognised qualifications. From starting our Skills for Life pro-

gramme in 2006 and becoming one of the first employers to be given official awarding- body status in 2008, we’re now one of the UK’s biggest apprenticeship providers and we’ve established a full range of challenging and transferable qualifications. It starts with a BTEC in work skills gained through our work experience, then on to qualifications in maths and English for those who need to brush up on the basics. The next step is our Level 2 apprenticeship in hospitality, which is completed in the workplace over the course of 12 months. Since January 2008, we have offered our shift managers a Level 3 diploma

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his year will doubtless be a challenging one for young people. As the economy continues its fragile recovery and youth unemployment remains high, there will

and, in 2010, we began to offer foundation degrees in Managing Business Operations to our restaurant managers. The case for this investment is clear.

Our recruitment policy revolves around the idea that we hire the very best people, from all walks of life, based on their qualities, not qualifications; their potential, not just experience. No matter whether our people are looking to build a career at McDonald’s or use the experience as a springboard to a job elsewhere, they want to be able to broaden their skills and knowledge and learn at work. This is clear when you look at the level of engagement with our qualifications programme – currently, over 16,000 of our people are studying towards national

running of our restaurants, we give them a much wider learning offer. We’ve now had four consecutive years

of growth thanks to our sustained strong business performance and we created 5,000 new jobs in the last year alone. Our people have never been more engaged: 84 per cent of our employees say they’re proud to work at McDonald’s; 94 per cent believe the skills gained at McDonald’s would be valuable to other employers; and the average length of service has risen to two and a half years for crew members and 15 years for our restaurant management. For many people, employer-led education

is never going to replace the traditional seats of learning, and nor should it. But, as people

“We see improvements in customer satisfaction, staff retention and employee confidence and commitment. That’s why we give our people a much wider learning offer”

qualifications, 7,000 are studying towards their apprenticeship, with a further 2,800 having completed it. Over 2,300 have gained our management diploma and there have been nearly 5,500 maths and English passes. There is a commercial reality too. First and

foremost, in a customer-led business, we need our people to deliver consistent, high-quality customer service in our restaurants. Our work on training and development absolutely drives this though – we’ve found that if our people are engaged and inspired at work every day, we have more fulfilled, motivated employees, able to serve our customers even better. We see improvements in customer satisfaction, staff retention and employee confidence and commitment. That’s why, as well as training our people on the smooth

are asked to pay more for their post-school education, it may well make people think a bit harder about what the right course and provider is for them. Once this happens, we’ll see provision become more and more diverse as people try to maximise the value they can extract from their study. As our people’s response to our own qualifications programme demonstrates, it is in businesses’ interest to be a central part of this opening up of education provision, providing tailored offerings to employees that enable them to reach their true potential, within their business and beyond.

Jez Langhorn is Vice President, People, McDonald’s UK