The House of Fraser store in Oxford street is a flagship store for this well known brand of department stores that spans the UK. The store provides an excellent working environment for students to explore and understand the retail sector in action. Despite the possibilities, taking advantage of a real world employer can prove difficult for both schools and employers. House of Fraser is no exception and is limited in the number of young people that it can invite to the store each year.

VIEW:Retail offers access to the store as if you were really there, enabling potentially thousands of students around the UK to gain valuable knowledge about this company's day to day work.

The resource provides a way for students and teachers to navigate around all 6 floors of the store with plenty of opportunity to find interesting evidence and listen to real store staff talking about the store, their work and themselves. All the interviews are real, no actors just real employees able to talk directly to your students. Everything you see is shown ‘as-is’ from the real store on Oxford Street, a real working environment to challenge young people and better prepare them for the world of work.

Skillsmart, the Sector Skills Council for Retail has funded the construction of a VIEW Retail CD based on House of Fraser, Oxford Street. A Single-User Edition CDROM is available free of charge to all schools in the UK through their local Education Business Partnership.

If you have not yet received your free Single-User edition of VIEW:Retail, please contact your local Education Business Partnership. Remember that this is a Single User version of VIEW:Retail funded by Skillsmart as a resource and as an opportunity for schools to try this powerful resource. Schools wishing to run VIEW Retail on more than one PC or over a network should purchase a Multi-User Edition from FutureVu, (www.futurevu.com). VIEW Retail is registered with Curriculum Online and multi-user editions can be purchased using E-Learning Credits.

House of Fraser's mission is to be "...Britain's No.1 department store retailer - by profitably, anticipating and exceeding our target customers' expectations in every aspect of the overall shopping experience..." This VIEW application offers access to the store's sales floors and includes the offices, training room, delivery area and a link to the Swindon House of Fraser IT Centre.

House of Fraser supports the GCSE for Applied Business, offering examples and evidence which enables students to explore and investigate a business in the retail sector. The virtual tour also provides some evidence in support of the work related curriculum at Key Stage 4, Careers Education and Citizenship.

Developed with support from Skillsmart Retail, the Sector Skills Council for Retail and funded by the London LSCs. The VIEW of House of Fraser was made possible by the considerable support of the Oxford Street House of Fraser management and employees who provided access to their business, workplaces, employees and other materials.

The introduction and contact with House of Fraser was made possible through the support of Skillsmart Retail.

Schools in Scotland, Wales and N.Ireland were provided with CDs through representatives of Skillsmart.

Schools who wish to use this software on more than one PC will need to purchase a Multi-User Edition of VIEW:Retail. See the FutureVu website for further information:
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