Nashville, Tenn. – Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen wants the state to do a better job at preparing students for careers at Wal-Mart. But he’s not talking about stocking shelves or checking out customers at the retail giant.
Instead, Bredesen wants to tailor community-college programs to offer courses on retail management.
Bredesen, a Democrat, pitched his proposal on how to address a management shortage at big-box retail stores on a recent trip to Wal-Mart Stores’ headquarters in Bentonville, Ark.
While no formal arrangement has been struck, Bredesen and Wal-Mart officials agreed to work on developing a curriculum.
Bredesen said he would consider an arrangement in which community colleges teach Wal- Mart-specific skills if the company would agree to guarantee jobs for graduates with good grades.
Wal-Mart spokesman Dennis Alpert said Bredesen’s proposal came after hearing from company officials talk about a shortage of managers. The program would be a first for the world’s largest retailer.
“Not just in Tennessee, but across the country, there’s a lacking of certain trained professionals” at large retail stores, Alpert said.
The traditional model at Wal- Mart has been to hire entry-level workers and gradually have them to move up the ranks toward management positions, Alpert said.
Bredesen said working with community colleges to develop retail-specific management skills could help jump-start recruitment and help Wal-Mart expand.
Timothy Vogus, an assistant professor of management at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, said running a Wal-Mart store is “very complex managerial work.”
“You’re dealing with so many issues that are very hard to deal with, especially the human issues: the staffing, the recruiting, the training,” he said.
While those skills are taught in undergraduate and graduate programs, retailers aren’t able to offer the salaries – or the prestige – that would attract those graduates to manage their stores.
