Learning and development

We believe in giving everyone the tools they need to succeed

Life in our Distribution Centres starts with a tailored training programme that will take you through the equipment you’ll need to do your job and help you to get to know your role. 

We’ll also start to build your development plan – it might be that you’re looking for a role that you can enjoy and succeed in day-to-day, or you could be looking to progress your career in Distribution Centres and potentially in our wider Group. 

Either way, we’ll review your progress regularly, check where you want to get to and support you in getting there. 

Join us, and you’ll find that all of our learning and development programmes are centred around our firmly-held belief that everyone, in every role and at every level, can become an expert. But that’s not to say we’ll expect you to become an expert straight away. 

To start with, our training is about helping you to find your feet, learn the ropes and do the kind of work that leaves you feeling fulfilled and motivated. After all, we’re here to help you develop the knowledge, skills and behaviours that will help us be recognised as the best pet care business in the world. You’ll be working behind the scenes, but you’ll still have a vital role to play in helping us provide the best experiences for pets and their owners. 

You’ll be able to develop some more specialist skills too. We offer tailored learning experiences for each part of the business, and for each group of colleagues. 
And if you decide you’d like to build on your skills further still, you’ll have access to our ‘My Learning’ platform which covers all sorts of areas, from mindfulness to pet care. It enables you to choose when, how and what you learn. 

Our commitment to training means that some of our modules are run on an ‘Earn as you Learn’ basis, giving you salary-based rewards for taking part and achieving your learning goals. 
Finally, as well as giving you the chance to drive your own learning journey, we’ll support your progression through our different talent pathways. We’re a very forward-looking business, and we want everyone here to be able to play a part in shaping our future. 

Warehouse to Wheels

We created our ‘Warehouse to Wheels’ programme to give our colleagues a new career stepping- stone to our Transport Department. It’s an exciting opportunity for anyone who wants to take a new career route. It can also be life-changing, in terms of the pay increase and financial gain. 

Join the programme and we’ll pay for every aspect of your training, from your initial driver medical, theory and hazard tests, to driver training through Class 2 Cat C to Class 1 Cat C and E. 

It doesn’t end when you get your Class 1 licence. Our buddy programme allows you, as a new driver, to go out with an experienced driver to gain valuable experience under their watchful and comforting guidance for at least 2-3 weeks. 

We then assess and communicate with you, to ensure that not only we are happy for you to go it alone but, more importantly, that you feel confident about it too.  

We’ve recently been approved and accredited to be our very own Pets at Home training centre for Transport Certificate of Professional Competence (CPC) training. For CPC, every driver who drives any vehicle above 3.5 tonnes needs to complete 35 hours of training over a 5-year period.