Working and Learning in the Retail Sector: A Cross-Country Comparative View

Abstract

AbstractEurope’s retail sector provides early career workers with a first entry into gainful employment, though often employing them on a part-time and/or temporary basis. This chapter compares workplace learning opportunities in the retail sector in Belgium, Denmark, and Estonia, focusing on early career workers’ experiences. Using in-depth case studies, it shows that workplace design can limit their opportunities for day-to-day workplace learning. However, there are important variations within and across the cases studied. When meaningful learning and career development are limited, early career workers’ responses differ, in ways shaped by their evolving life structures and organisational settings. They may find retail work temporarily ‘right’, even though learning opportunities are restricted. Given the sector’s size and dominant role, employers can often deviate from national labour standards.