Walmart celebrated the opening of its fifth Missouri Training Academy on Thursday at the Walmart Supercenter in Poplar Bluff.
Walmart representatives, academy graduates and members of the community gathered for a grand opening celebration that morning. As part of the event, Walmart also recognized the Poplar Bluff Academy's first graduating class of department managers and hourly supervisors with a formal graduation ceremony. The new Poplar Bluff Academy represents the 141st Academy facility to be opened by Walmart nationwide.
Walmart Training Academies are dedicated facilities located in, or adjacent to, Walmart Supercenters. At the facilities, hourly supervisors, department managers and assistant managers receive two weeks of training designed to provide them with core retail skills, along with the skills and knowledge to run their specific departments. The sessions combine classroom and sales floor training, while also providing associates with hands-on, dedicated training with operator-facilitators. Specific areas of study include leadership, merchandising, operations and customer service.
The new, 2,600-square-foot Poplar Bluff Academy will serve 19 area stores and have the capacity to train up to 90 associates per week. Stores being served by the Poplar Bluff academy are:
Sikeston Walmart Supercenter, West Plains Walmart Supercenter, Poplar Bluff Walmart Supercenter, Dexter Walmart Supercenter, Farmington Walmart Supercenter, Sullivan Walmart Supercenter, Festus Walmart Supercenter, Perryville Walmart Supercenter, Desloge Walmart Supercenter, Jackson Walmart Supercenter, DeSoto Walmart Supercenter, Potosi Walmart Supercenter, Cape Girardeau Walmart Supercenter, Kennett Walmart Supercenter, Fredericktown Walmart Supercenter, Malden Walmart Supercenter, Thayer Walmart Supercenter, Mountain View Walmart Supercenter, and Cuba Walmart Supercenter.
"Our training academies help provide associates with the skills they need to succeed and advance, while creating a better and more consistent customer experience," said Terry Nannie, vice president and regional general manager, Walmart. "Skills training increases productivity, confidence and knowledge, which leads to greater job satisfaction and personal and professional growth, and helps make working at Walmart a smart career choice."
The nationwide establishment of Walmart's Training Academies is part of the company's end-to-end training program, called Pathways, which aims to provide associates at all levels of store operation with the skills they need to go from entry level to regional manager. The training focuses on the "one best way" to run a Walmart, with the goal of providing the best customer service across all Walmart stores.
The new Poplar Bluff Training Academy is one of 200 facilities that Walmart plans to establish nationwide by the end of 2017. In Missouri alone, Walmart has established Training Academies at stores in St. Charles, Jefferson City, Joplin and St. Louis over the past year. Once the Training Academy program is fully implemented across the U.S., Walmart expects to train about 140,000 people a year.
Each academy will have its own team of approximately 14 associates with retail operations experience to lead the training. All academy stores go through a rigorous auditing process to ensure they are able to deliver the teaching, training and development that associates should receive at the academy.