Regional grocery retail in Germany stands for freshness, quality, and customer proximity. However, behind the scenes, the sector faces a major challenge: high dropout rates among apprentices and a lack of long-term retention.

While products in-store receive daily attention and appreciation, apprentices themselves often lack this recognition in their work routine. Many experience insufficient guidance, feedback, and opportunities to contribute, and are uncertain about their career prospects after completing their training.

When apprentices leave the company, the business not only loses valuable future talent, but also places additional strain on the remaining teams. We want to change this: appreciation should not be left to chance, but become part of the system.

Background

The ideas are intended to benefit regional full-range grocery retailers in Northern Germany (approx. 500 employees, up to 15 stores). These retailers take pride in their private labels, local specialties, and service counters.

Apprentices in best-practice companies often say:
“I stay because I can truly make a difference here and feel recognized.”

Note
This contest is part of the InnoVET-PLUS research project InnoHubAzubi and is carried out in cooperation with apprentices from German vocational schools.

Please submit your contribution in both German and English. If you do not speak German, you may use machine translation for the German version.