Tēnā koutou katoa. As part of my 23-Flexi Learn Programme, I had the opportunity along with ten other students to attend and participate in a two-day Retails Skills Course. The course was held at the Pacific Coast Technical Institute, Mount Maunganui. This course earned us five Level 2 credits for NCEA.

The first day we did ‘Introduction to Sales’. We were introduced to the word ‘rapport’ in a retail situation, which means to create an understanding of each other's ideas through communication and connection. We also practiced the one-on-one customer / retailer relationship by role playing different scenarios.

The second day was ‘Creating Displays and Merchandising’. We learned different strategies that would encourage customers to buy certain products, be informed about what they are buying and shop safely. We talked about the optimum placement of goods, for example: in a supermarket the well-known brands of chocolate are displayed at eye level, and the milk is placed at the far end of the supermarket, so that customers would shop for other products along the way. We also learned about the importance of signage and how to organise, arrange and accessorize displays to make them more attractive to customers.

The highlight of this retail skills experience was to help me with my future employment by gaining a lot of skills and practical knowledge. Working collaboratively with my classmates during this course enables me to transfer these skills into a work situation. This course has given me confidence that I could find employment in this field.

This was an amazing opportunity for me to be able to learn how to be valuable and respectful to our customers and to my future employers. This has given me so much pride in finding ways of working with others and I am able to encourage others to take the first step into retail and hopefully participate in this course in the near future.

Wanika Rahiri

12RMY