It's a place where people can build a real career. There are clear routes to grow, from work experience and apprenticeships through to our graduate programme and plenty of support along the way. Our CEO Simon Roberts started out on the shop floor, which tells you something about where a career in retail can lead.
Absolutely and we'd love to help you take those first steps. We know how hard it can be to get a foot in the door when you don't have the right contacts, so we've launched a new Modern Work Experience Programme to make work experience fairer and more accessible to everyone. Together with an industry pilot, it'll create around 10,000 opportunities a year for young people to build confidence, pick up skills and see what a career in retail could look like.
It comes in two parts: KickStarter Explore for 14–18 year-olds, blending in-school learning with real workplace experience, and KickStarter Insights for 16–24 year-olds, with employability workshops to help with interviews, applications and the important next steps.
We're also helping to shape the future of work experience across our whole industry. As a founding participant in Feeding Britain's Future – a pilot led by the Institute of Grocery Distribution (IGD) and The Careers & Enterprise Company (CEC), alongside other retailers – we're helping design a new, shared approach to work experience for 14–18 year-olds. What we learn will help open up even more opportunities in local communities in the years ahead.
If you're leaving university, our FutureMaker graduate programme is where our leaders of tomorrow are grown. Over two years, you'll take on three eight-month rotations right at the heart of the business, building the skills shaping the future of retail – think data and analytics, digital and AI, commercial thinking and driving change. You'll have a manager, a mentor and a buddy throughout and at the end we'll help you find a permanent role.
And it doesn't stop there – through our SkillShaper apprenticeships, colleagues at any stage can gain a recognised qualification while they work, with protected time to learn.
We think people who work hard should be rewarded fairly. We've increased hourly pay by more than 40% over the past five years, with our most recent rise coming in above inflation.
This year, hourly pay increased to £13.23 per hour nationally and £14.54 per hour in London, resulting in a pay increase of over £1,200 a year for full-time hourly-paid colleagues.
And pay is only part of it: colleagues also get a discount that can save over £600 a year on an £80 weekly shop, free food during shifts, a pension scheme and a share-save scheme.
We'd love to hear from you. Whether it's an in-store role, logistics, technology, an apprenticeship or our graduate programme, you can find everything on our careers site – with over 60,000 roles across our business each year, there's a lot to explore.
Sainsbury's is one of the UK's largest employers, with around 140,000 colleagues. We offer competitive, above-inflation pay, a strong benefits package, and clear routes to grow – from work experience and apprenticeships to our graduate programme – so people can build a career whatever their starting point.
Sainsbury's pays competitive, above-inflation rates, and has increased hourly pay by more than 40% over the past five years. Colleagues also receive a strong benefits package, including a discount that can save over £600 a year on an £80 weekly shop, free food during shifts, a pension scheme and a share-save scheme.
Yes. Sainsbury’s pays all store colleagues the same hourly wage regardless of their age.
Yes. As well as competitive pay, colleagues get a discount that can save over £600 a year on an £80 weekly shop, free food during shifts, a pension scheme and a share-save scheme.
Yes – our FutureMaker graduate programme is a two-year scheme with three eight-month rotations, building skills in data, digital and AI, commercial thinking and change. Applications open in January for roles starting in September and graduates are supported into a permanent role at the end.
Yes. Our Modern Work Experience Programme will create around 10,000 opportunities a year for young people. KickStarter Explore is for 14–18 year-olds and KickStarter Insights is for 16–24 year-olds, helping build skills, confidence and networks.
Yes – our SkillShaper apprenticeships let colleagues gain recognised qualifications while they work, with time protected to learn, across areas like data, digital, commercial and transformation.
You can explore and apply for roles – in-store, logistics, technology, apprenticeships and graduate programmes – at sainsburys.jobs. Over 60,000 roles come up across the business each year.
