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There is great news for the graduate retail job sector this week as Tesco open their graduate recruitment applications for the 2011/12 intake. In 2010/11 they placed 240 graduates into retail and related jobs in the supermarket industry – an increase of over a quarter on the 190 graduate vacancies they filled the previous year.

This year marks the 20th anniversary of the Tesco Graduate Scheme and it is worth taking a look back to the birth of their graduate programme to see just how far the supermarket group has come with their graduate scheme in those two decades. Back in 1990, Tesco only offered 100 retail jobs on their initial graduate programme, so this year’s intake represents a 140% rise in the number of graduate places available. The starting salary for a graduate has also increased on a similar scale, rising from £12,000 twenty years ago to £28,000 today.

The Tesco Graduate Training Scheme consists of 17 different programmes designed to bring specialist knowledge in such retail-related areas as buying, finance, human resources, merchandising, technology leadership and supply chain methods.

Tesco’s Corporate and Legal Affairs Director, Lucy Neville-Rolfe, said: “We are delighted to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Tesco graduate scheme. The company has seen significant growth since the programme began in 1990 and this is reflected in the opportunities on offer at Tesco. The diversity of the business allows graduates to work across different industries and disciplines and even countries.”

The retail sector now has the second largest number of graduate vacancies with only the NHS and Social Services providing more places for graduates.

Jason Tarry was one particularly successful graduate applicant from the 1990 scheme; he is now Chief Executive of Central European Clothing at Tesco. Tarry says that the supermarket business has changed significantly in his 20 years with the company but that in some ways it remains just the same.

Tarry said: “There are now international, multi product and format opportunities that didn’t exist before as well as the sheer scale of the business. Today Tesco offers graduates opportunities to work in different industries, disciplines and countries all within one company.”

Tesco has now become the biggest private sector employer in the UK and continues to increase its intake of new staff into graduate retail jobs in London and most other parts of the nation on an annual basis.