Students who share in this country's love affair with the John Lewis Partnership can now look forward to new opportunities for making a career with the company.  From September this year the John Lewis recruitment programme begins two new graduate schemes, one in buying, one in merchandising.

In the past, would-be buyers have had to apply for the general management scheme and then work their way into head office but now can apply to start at entry level to become an assistant buyer, and within 3 to 5 years if all goes well they could be buying globally and handling multi-million budgets.   

Sophie Milliken, the group's graduate recruitment manager, says they are looking for people with flair, vision and a passion for the John Lewis ethos - that's good service to customers and profit sharing for staff who become "partners" in the business.

For merchandising you need to be able to look at the numbers and forecast product sales. "We're looking for people with maths skills who are good at thinking logically. They will work alongside the buyers. The buyer might see a range of products and say 'wow', and the merchandiser has to bring them down to earth and start talking about units and figures," says Milliken.

Graduate trainees start on £24,000 plus the partnership bonus, while an assistant buyer can earn £23,600 to £32,800. Fully-fledged buyers earn between £43,000 and £87,250 plus bonus.

More details on this story from the Independent website

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/higher/graduate-news-john-lewis-in-search-of-flair-and-passion-1995535.html