See your Career at Specsavers: Chloe’s career journey from store to support office 

Chloe has gone from working in one of our stores to our support offices with plenty of learning & development opportunities along the way – ALL supported by Specsavers!  

This month we spoke to Chloe Potts who started her career at Specsavers as an optical assistant in one of our retail stores and now works in our support office as an apprenticeship coach.  

Our Ellesmere Port store welcomed Chloe to the team back in 2013 and loved it from day one, so quickly started to investigate how she could develop her career at Specsavers while also supporting and helping her store team grow their business.  

Using the learning resources provided by Specsavers she completed her first course – the HCA (Hearing Care Assistant) course. Learning about this side of the business really helped Chloe broaden her expertise and support the store in a new way.  

Chloe has always had a hunger to learn and in 2015 she decided to take her career to the next step and applied for the role of in store trainer; she felt she was the perfect fit for this position as she had a passion for optics and enjoyed making learning fun. As an In Store Trainer,  she facilitated weekly training sessions for all her retail colleagues in the store.  

And it was in this role that Chloe’s passion for training began. ‘I love helping other people in their roles – focusing on building up other people’s confidence and coaching them.’  

She worked her way through all the Pathways – bronze, silver and the two-day gold course where she had to carry out a training session to other in-store trainers and then went on to complete the Advanced ILM Assured IST and the Chartered Management Institute Apprenticeship. Completing this apprenticeship secured her a role in store as the Assistant Manager.  

‘I really recommend the Chartered Management Institute Apprenticeship – it really helped me in gaining confidence.’  

After eight years working in store and having worked her way up to a management position, Chloe realised she missed training. She decided to look at opportunities available in our support offices and soon found the perfect opportunity for her – an apprenticeship coach.  

Chloe joined the support office apprenticeship team three months ago and helps with the day-to-day coaching of new apprentices in our Specsavers retail stores from week 12 of their apprenticeship right through to their End Point Assessments. Going through an apprenticeship herself has given Chloe a unique perspective as she understands how much work is involved and the support that apprentices may require to help them realise their future ambitions.  

That doesn’t mean she hasn’t stopped developing herself though, she’s just completed her AET award in education and training.  

We asked Chloe what advice she would give someone who is trying to develop their career at Specsavers, and she said: ‘Take every opportunity that you get to learn more, whether it’s sitting down to do an eLearning module or attending a classroom session – I’ve always put myself forward for courses and taken the time to learn more about the business. There are so many opportunities at Specsavers – you can work in optics, hearcare, training, management and also support office. Just take every opportunity you can get and use the resources around you’   

Take a look at our current Support Office opportunities at Specsavers