![“Skills training increases productivity, confidence and knowledge, which leads to greater job satisfaction, personal and professional growth and helps make working at Walmart a smart career choice,” said John Tow, Walmart’s regional general manager. [Special to the Press Gazette]](http://127.0.0.1/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/ghows-DA-477e8332-6bbc-4426-e053-0100007f15d6-696cdbba-scaled.jpeg)
NAVARRE — Walmart has opened its first training academy in Navarre at the 9360 Navarre Parkway location.
Academies are a dedicated facility located in, or adjacent to, a Walmart Supercenter, where hourly supervisors and department managers receive two weeks’ hands-on training that combines the classroom and the sales floor.
“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 John Tow, Walmart’s regional general manager. “Skills training increases productivity, confidence and knowledge, which leads to greater job satisfaction, personal and professional growth and helps make working at Walmart a smart career choice.”
Walmart has created a training program called Pathways for associates at all levels of store operations, from entry-level to regional general manager. Hourly frontline supervisors and department managers will attend a dedicated two-week training program at the academy facility as part of Pathways.
Course work is as follows:
•The first week focuses on retail fundamentals and gaining core retail skills.
•The second week focuses on sales floor training to gain the knowledge and skills to run the specific department where the associate works.
•Areas of study include leadership, merchandising, operations, technology and customer service, in addition to department-specific training.
•Academy graduates will have the skills and confidence to run “outstanding departments, lead people and deliver a great customer experience,” a media release stated.
Walmart plans to build approximately 200 academies in the U.S. by the end of 2017. Each academy will train associates from approximately 25 nearby stores.
Benefits include:
•Making training more accessible to more associates. By being closer to where people work and live, associates can be home each night
•Taking associates out of their home store so they can focus solely on training for two weeks while still using a real-life Walmart sales floor as a training environment.
•Training more than 140,000 associates a year.
Each academy will have its own team of dedicated associates with retail operations experience to lead the training.
All academy stores go through a rigorous auditing process to ensure they can deliver the teaching, training and development that associates should receive at the academy.
This article originally appeared on Santa Rosa Press Gazette: Walmart training academy opens in Navarre