John Lewis offers new career paths - graduate jobs

Graduates seeking retail jobs will be offered two new career tracks by John Lewis from September.

The company will launch a buying graduate scheme and a merchandising graduate scheme so students wishing to work in specific areas will no longer be required to apply for the general management option.

They can now apply for an entry level position with the aim of progressing to become an assistant buyer before, within around three to five years, sourcing products from around the world and juggling a multi-million pound budget.

John Lewis graduate recruitment manager Sophie Milliken said: "Buyers have to be confident people who can negotiate a great price while maintaining our principles of trading fairly."

The merchandising graduate scheme demands people with strong analytical skills who can judge numbers to predict product sales.

Ms Milliken continued: "We're looking for people with maths skills who are good at thinking logically. They will work alongside the buyers. The buyer might see a range of products and say 'wow', and the merchandiser has to bring them down to earth and start talking about units and figures."