Royal Mail has announced it is to offer out 1,000 apprenticeships for those keen to become posties across the UK.
As part of the service’s new Postal Apprenticeship Scheme – which is designed to provide participants not only with the required skills for a successful career within Royal Mail, but with a broad range of lasting transferable skills and experience – successful candidates will achieve a Level 2 certification.
While Royal Mail has been running an apprenticeship schemes in other sectors of the service for a good few years now, this new initiative is one of the largest single apprenticeship programmes in the UK.
It comes after the former Postal Cadet Scheme ceased in 1996 – which started the careers of many senior Royal Mail employees.
Speaking on the launch of the new scheme, Ricky McAulay – Operations Development Director at Royal Mail – said: “We couldn’t be prouder to launch our Postal Apprenticeship Scheme at a time when the pandemic continues to take a heavy toll on career opportunities across the country.
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“We’ve placed a real emphasis on ensuring that our scheme has a range of transferable skills so that successful candidates can take what they learn with them for the rest of their careers.”
Keen to find out a little more about the job and what successful applicants will be getting up to?
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Here’s everything you need to know.
We’re recruiting one of the largest intakes of apprentices in the UK, with applicants successfully completing the Postal Apprenticeship offered a job.
Areas such as customer services, industry knowledge, and lessons in financial budgeting, and health and wellbeing will all be covered in the new Postal Apprenticeship Scheme.
The role will consist of day-to-day duties as a delivery postie, with additional time spent completing learning towards the apprenticeship. 80% of the apprenticeship will take the form of on-the-job training, with the remaining 20% being online learning towards their Level 2 apprenticeship certification.
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What is the application process like?
As part of the application process, those who are shortlisted will have to complete a ‘Situational Judgement Test’, a virtual interview, and will be invited to meet their line manager at the unit where they’ll work.
Applicants who successfully complete the scheme will be offered a permanent role at Royal Mail.
The scheme teaches the required skills for a successful career within Royal Mail / Credit: Royal Mail
What support will I receive?
Apprentices will receive extensive training, local support from their line manager, a designated workplace coach, and a mentor to support their career progression.
Are applications open?
Applications for the Postal Apprenticeship Scheme open on Monday 28 June, and the recruitment programme will run from September 2021, with the initial cohort of 500 apprentices starting then.
Up to a further 500 roles will then be allocated across the business from in the new year.
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In total, Royal Mail is expecting the recruitment process to take up to 13 months, and you can submit your application via the Early Careers section on the Royal Mail website here.
Featured Image – Royal Mail
UK News
Tyson Fury vs Anthony Joshua fight FINALLY booked
Danny Jones
It seems like it’s official: Tyson Fury is finally set to fight Anthony Joshua – and it sounds like it’s happening this year.
Put it this way, it better be worth all the hype after all this time.
Arguably one of the most anticipated all-British bouts of the last few decades, the boxing match between Fury and Joshua is one that fight fans, and even those only occasionally interested in the sport, have been waiting to be booked for ages.
It got to a point where we almost started to think we’d never get to see it come to fruition whatsoever, but now promoter Eddie Hearn has confirmed that it’s all locked in.
As you can see, putting things in the simplest terms possible, the Matchroom Boxing boss said on social media: “Signed, sealed, delivered! AJ v Fury is on!”
This comes after a previous post, in which he wrote: “The biggest piece of business we’ve ever done, but more importantly, the one we’ve always wanted.
“Biggest year of AJ’s career coming up, the comeback is on.”
Tagging the chairman of Saudi Arabia’s General Entertainment Authority (GEA) and co-founder of Zuffa Boxing, Turki Al-Sheikh, the government official looks to have recently held a major event in which he hosted several big sporting names.
It was already heavily expected that any potential clash would take place in the Middle East, and it now looks like nailed on that it will be part of the country’s annual ‘Riyadh Season’.
Although things have been relatively tight-lipped on Fury‘s side, ‘The Gypsy King’ did share a little reaction of his own online…
Still more of a teaser on his end than full verification, we hope they’re not going to lead us down the garden path on this one; boxing heads have waited long enough for this one.
The 37-year-old Manchester-born boxer returned to the ring after yet ANOTHER ‘retirement’ earlier this month, winning comfortably against Arslanbek Makhmudov.
Meanwhile, Joshua, now 36, will be making his own comeback of sorts against Kristian Prenga on July 25 – this will also be taking place in Riyadh.
Featured Images — Netflix (screenshots via YouTube)
UK News
Claire’s is closing down stores in the UK and Ireland with more than 1,300 jobs set to be lost
Danny Jones
In another hit to domestic shoppers, Claire’s Accessories is closing down en masse across the UK and Ireland after entering into administration once again.
Falling into an unfortunate financial status for the second time in less than a year, Claire’s will be shutting down all of their standalone stores across Britain, along with their IE branches.
A total of 154 stores will soon disappear, with more than a thousand people set to be put out of work.
Once a mainstay of British high streets up and down the country, the accessory shop known for all things jewellery, piercings and more has ceased trading effective immediately.
Announced at the start of the week and the end of the first full month of Q2, it was confirmed that Claire’s closed their final locations on Monday, 27 April.
With administrators, Kroll, appointed to wrap up business proceedings, an estimated 1,300 English, Irish, Scottish and Welsh workers have now lost their jobs.
Founded way back in 1961 over in the United States, Claire’s has operated across the Atlantic for more than three decades.
However, with various other contemporaries and cheaper online options having appeared over the years, they’ve struggled not just to remain profitable but to compete full stop.
They most recently filed for bankruptcy in the US this past August (2025), with their Belgian, Spanish, and Dutch divisions having already called it quits.
Manchester location(s) have changed a lot over time, but now they’re on the way out (Credit: Arndale)
For many, the outcome isn’t all that surprising, but it will nevertheless be a sad loss for many who have seen multiple generations visit these venues over the years.
Emily Sergeant -
24th June 2021 
