Employers need to build relationships with academia if they are to secure the talent they need, according to the managing director of Asda’s fashion line, George at Asda.

Andrew Moore told Recruiter: “I am not knocking the British education system, but businesses such as ourselves can play a role so that we can access the great talent we need. There is an opportunity to build contact points and a relationship with academia.”

Among its own initiatives to build those links, George invited career guidance staff from a number of universities and a range of disciplines to George House. “The actual buyers and merchandisers were on hand to talk about their jobs in George, the range of skills wanted and to give them a better understanding of what is required,” Moore explained.

“Students who leave education enter a very challenging workplace, and anything we can do to make that transaction easier has to be encouraged,” said Moore. “There has been a lot of positive feedback,” he added.

In August the successful applicants for the company’s new two-year foundation degree set in conjunction with Manchester Metropolitan University are due to begin work at George’s head office in Lutterworth, Leicestershire. The students will receive 28 hours of teaching each week while receiving a salary. Moore said there had been “a lot of interest’ in the degree, with more than 100 applicants for the four positions.

Moore said it was coincidental that the degree was launched at the same time as students were facing the prospect of tuitions fee of £9,000 a year. “We didn’t set it up for that reason,” he explained. However, he added tuition fees were now a factor, and with around 30% of young people saying higher tuition fees would put them off attending university, those employers who didn’t respond faced missing out on talented people.

Moore dismissed the cost to the company. “I look at it as an investment in our talent pool and in time, more than anything else,” he said. George at Asda joins a number of other employers, including KPMG, UPS and Harrods, who are offering opportunities to earn while studying for a degree.