Sainsbury’s is creating around 10,000 work experience opportunities for young people over the next year as access to the first rung of the UK labour market becomes increasingly difficult.
The Sainsbury’s Modern Work Experience Programme combines the retailer’s own KickStarter initiative with a wider industry pilot involving the Careers & Enterprise Company and the Institute of Grocery Distribution.
KickStarter includes two routes designed for different age groups. KickStarter Explore is aimed at 14-to-18-year-olds and combines learning in schools with practical workplace experience, while KickStarter Insights is for 16-to-24-year-olds and focuses on employability skills including communication, applications, and interview preparation.
More than 5,000 places will be provided through KickStarter Explore and more than 200 through KickStarter Insights. Sainsbury’s says a further 5,000 opportunities will be delivered through its own programmes following its support for the wider industry pilot.
The programme will operate across stores, depots, and offices in England, Scotland, and Wales. The retailer says it will concentrate particularly on communities with high eligibility for free school meals and young people who are not in employment, education, or training.
Simon Roberts, Sainsbury’s chief executive, said: “Our new work experience programme will create around 10,000 opportunities over the next year.”
The first KickStarter events are due to begin in October following marketing and recruitment activity from September. Participants will encounter roles across stores, logistics, technology, and food, alongside practical support with CVs, interviews, and job applications.
The initiative arrives when younger people face unusually difficult labour market conditions. More than one million people aged 16 to 24 are not in education, employment, or training, while national vacancy levels have continued to decline.
Office for National Statistics figures show 707,000 vacancies across the economy in the three months to July, down 19,000 from a year earlier. The Work Foundation has separately estimated that the supply of starter jobs accessible to people entering work for the first time has fallen 49% over a decade.
That contraction increases the value of employer contact, particularly for young people without existing professional networks. Work experience can provide evidence of workplace skills, introduce participants to occupations they may not otherwise encounter, and give them references or examples to use when applying for later roles.
The Sainsbury’s model is intended to go beyond a single observational placement. Explore combines activity in schools and employer contact over time, while Insights uses regional workshops to prepare participants more directly for applications and interviews.
The retailer is also a founding participant in a separate pilot with the Careers & Enterprise Company, the Institute of Grocery Distribution, and other retailers. The project is intended to develop a broader model of work experience for 14-to-18-year-olds and inform plans to expand opportunities across Sainsbury’s store network from 2027.
Large employers have particular scope to provide placements outside traditional professional services and city centre networks because they operate in a wider range of locations. Sainsbury’s says a quarter of its workforce is under 25, giving the programme a direct link to an employer that already recruits large numbers of younger workers.
Work experience does not by itself create permanent employment. Its longer-term effect will depend on whether participants can progress into apprenticeships, jobs, training, or further education after completing placements, and whether employers continue to provide enough entry-level vacancies for those skills to be used.
The programme therefore sits alongside the broader challenge of restoring junior employment opportunities rather than replacing it. Its first year should provide evidence of whether repeated employer engagement can improve confidence and employment prospects while the wider supply of starter jobs remains under pressure.
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