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Heathrow Retail Academy

Career opportunities within retail and catering concessionaires

If you're the kind of person who thrives on delivering excellent customer service, you'll have the chance to put your skills to good use every day at Heathrow, whatever your role and wherever you're based. The working environment is fast-paced, ever-changing and full of surprises, and we're sure that you will enjoy building your career within Heathrow.

Eligibility criteria

You must:

Hold a valid passport.
Have a five-year referenceable history.
Be eligible to work in the United Kingdom.
Be able to work a varied shift pattern between 04:00 and 23:00.

Customer service roles in retail and catering

If you are interested in applying for customer service roles at Heathrow within our retail and catering concessionaires and you meet the above eligibility criteria, please submit your CV and a covering email to retail_academy@urbanfutures.org.uk.

Chef vacancies

We also have a number of chef vacancies within some of the retail catering outlets at Heathrow. If you meet the eligibility criteria listed above and you are interested in chef roles, please email retail_academy@urbanfutures.org.uk stating 'Chef vacancies' in your subject header.

For general enquiries please email retail_academy@baa.com.

About the Retail Academy

The Retail Academy provides recruitment and training solutions for retail and service brands at Heathrow. Our programmes are designed to meet the needs of employers and employees, improving motivation and retention by enhancing skills and knowledge.

The Retail Academy's role within the Heathrow Commercial Team is to support our business partners in making every journey better. To learn more about the Retail Academy please see our brochure (1.34MB PDF).

If you would like to understand more details about the qualifications we offer for employers and employees, please see our Employer and Mentor Guide (1MB PDF).

Big tick award

Retail Academy has been awarded a “Big Tick” for its employability programme at the Business in the Community’s annual Awards for Excellence. Big Ticks are awarded to companies whose corporate responsibility programmes are having a significant and positive impact on business and society. Retail Academy’s application focused on HAL’s work in helping local unemployed residents to access retail jobs at Heathrow and progress into further training.

This is the third time in four years that the Retail Academy has been awarded a Big Tick (in two different categories) and follows its 2008 success in being identified by Business in the Community as a National Example of Excellence.

Karima Sakhi, Heathrow Retail Academy’s manager, said: “It is fantastic to be awarded the Big Tick for a second year in a row. The award recognises the contribution the Retail Academy has made to local employment and raising skills levels in Heathrow’s neighbouring communities by working closely with business partners and offering retail job opportunities. We couldn’t do this without our retailers and of course our dedicated recruitment team.”

Ofsted inspection

Retail Academy is pleased to announce in its most recent Ofsted inspection (June 2011) it has been awarded a grade to by the Office of Standards Training and Education Department.

Organisations involved with the training of young people are inspected on a regular basis to ensure that they offer a high quality training programme. The grade 2 award is in recognition for the provision of Leadership and Management, Safeguarding, Quality of provision, Equality and Diversity and Outcomes of learners.

The Retail Academy received positive feedback on the quality of work produced by learners and the support received by their retail teams, It also commented on the impact that Retail Academy programmes have had on staff motivation and performance:

“Employer engagement and partnerships in the local area are outstanding, with good teaching and learning, excellent peer and manager relationships and effective in-store mentors for learners”.