Skillsmart Retail has launched a 'Guide to Retail Qualifications and Job Roles' aimed at employers and learning providers as well as individuals seeking a career in retail.

The new guide maps out the various qualifications available within retail and their corresponding job roles for each of the four nations. It also serves to demonstrate how new qualifications such as the Diploma in Retail, available from 2010, will fit into the current framework.

Beverley Paddey, Head of Qualifications and Standards at Skillsmart Retail said: “Each of the UK nations has separate government-led educational policies which have resulted in courses and qualifications being named differently. We hope that by providing this easy-to-use guide, which matches qualifications in each of the nations with their corresponding job roles, retailers, learning providers and individuals will be able to see the kind of job roles to which each of the nations' qualifications and learning programmes relate.”

Copies of the guide can be downloaded at the Skillsmart Retail website.