The Shadow Industry of Internships

Due to the specialized nature of retail and fashion, training “on the job” has always been an integral part of the industry. In some cases, this learning was informal, particularly in family run businesses, but it was also formal through apprenticeships, where young people were hired to learn a trade at an atelier with the goal for them to become full-time employees. These individual apprenticeships also led to internal certification programs–especially at larger retailers–wherein this learning could be provided at scale, albeit still at a local level. For example, Neiman Marcus’ training program in Dallas or Macy’s training program in New York City. However, as fashion became more corporatized and globalized, these informal and formal types of learning largely disappeared, or shifted to an HR function, leaving a gap in the employee training process.