Early Careers

Apprenticeships

The Planet Organic Retail Academy

Join the Planet Organic Retail Academy HERE

Our Retail Academy provides opportunities for apprentices to join our teams in our stores across London. As a Planet Organic apprentice, you’ll be a vital part of our day to day operations, working with, and supporting your team on the shop floor, whilst engaging and advising customers. Your year-long apprenticeship will include the opportunity to gain experience working in different departments.



When you work at Planet Organic you know that we are a company that makes a positive contribution to the world that we live in. Our agenda is to continue to be at the forefront of the health revolution and to promote organic food and sustainable agriculture. We promote local food where we can and eating seasonally, as well as ethical, sustainable and environmentally focussed business practices. And we mean it: we do what we do because it is the right thing to do, not because it’s the right thing to say.



Part of this is our commitment to providing healthy and sustainable careers that support and provide opportunities for the local communities around our stores. As an apprentice in our Retail Academy, we hope you’ll get satisfaction from working in a positive environment with ethical values. You’ll be contributing to promoting healthy lifestyles within the community, educating our customers by sharing your knowledge and recommendations. You’ll be advising our customers on the benefits of eating wholesome, organic food and using natural products to enhance their lives. Hopefully, you’ll benefit from what you learn here too, with a nationally recognised qualification and a career development plan that allows you to progress beyond your apprenticeship in an area of our business that’s right for you. All apprentices will receive the offer of a full-time role on completion of the programme.



You will learn:

  • To explain the benefits of using natural and organic products
  • To understand different dietary requirements
  • To place orders, manage stock rotation and the foundations of visual merchandising
  • To offer excellent service to our customers at the till and on the shop floor
  • To maintain high operational standards of presentation, cleanliness and food hygiene.

Training / qualifications provided as part of the Retail Academy L2 programme:

  • Food Hygiene L2 certificate
  • Health & safety L1 certificate
  • Customer Service training
  • Barista Skills training
  • Fire Warden and First Aid training

Planet Organic’s Retail Academy programme is delivered in partnership with HIT, a specialist retail and hospitality industry training provider, and funded via the national apprenticeship levy.


Join the Planet Organic Retail Academy HERE

Management and Leadership Development

Our Management and Leadership Development programme is aimed at producing the next group of future leaders of the company. It is delivered in partnership with leading training provider Corndel, who have been working closely with us since early 2017, and is accredited by the Chartered Management Institute (CMI).



The programme focuses on the development of our staff internally and offers a diploma at both level 3 and level 5. Both courses involve a blended learning approach over 13 months, with monthly workshops delivered at our offices in Westbourne Grove in West London, combined with one-to-one coaching sessions delivered remotely and continuous weekly study through an online platform that gives learners access to video and audio guides.



Speaking to our first cohort at the programme’s launch event in July 2017, CEO Peter Marsh said, "Planet Organic is now 22 years old and there are always loads of areas that require investment, but top of the list for us is always our people. Retailing is all about people and it is a great place to develop your skills. I am delighted and the Directors are all very enthusiastic about the programme you are starting today."

The programme includes training and development in key management and leadership areas including communication, setting targets and objectives, recruitment and retention, coaching and mentoring, safe working practices, managing appraisals and development plans, valuing diversity, commercial awareness and finance skills.

Internships and Work Experience Placements


Supported Internships
Our supported internships help young people aged 16 to 24 with complex learning difficulties or disabilities to find work. Launched in November 2019, the scheme is available to SEND (special educational needs and disability) candidates from local schools. To deliver this, we have collaborated with a bi-borough council group from Westminster City Council and Kensington & Chelsea Council.

Study programmes include on-the-job training with expert coaches responsible for supporting both interns and their managers. Programmes can also give interns the opportunity to take courses to develop other relevant skills, such as effective communication or understanding money.

How does it work?

  • Delivered over the course of an academic school year
  • Flexible delivery model with most of the time spent at Planet Organic.
  • Individuals learn their role with the support of robust job coaching utilising Training in Systematic Instruction (TSI)
  • Includes English and Maths
  • Provides an appropriate placement for both the employer and the intern
  • The goal is for the young person to gain employment
  • Remploy provide an embedded advisor who will deliver TSI based job coaching
  • A local college provide learning support and funding.

Our supported internships are an example of Planet Organic’s commitment to continuing to increase the diversity of our workforce, reflecting the communities we serve. Our interns increase disability awareness and confidence in our teams and, we hope, our communities too.

Work Experience Placements
Planet Organic proudly supports the Drive Forward Foundation, a London-based charity working with 13-26 year-olds leaving the care system to provide one-to-one support, mentoring, training and development for gaining employment and accessing a brighter future.

In 2020, we will offer regular one and two week work placements to young people from Drive Forward as part of their development, as well as continuing to host ‘Aim Higher Days’, designed for small groups to come and take part in learning activities, taste testing, ‘speed networking’ and tours of Planet Organic’s operations.



We are also proud to work with other London-based charities and foundations, such as Switchback and the House of St. Barnabas, to offer work experience and often employment to people who find themselves confronted by an increased number of barriers to meaningful work.