Learning & Development
“On the journey to achievement, you must be learning all the time“
John Patrick Hickey
Our Learning & Development teams are committed to supporting you and your learning journey with Midcounties and are constantly innovating to improve learning and development for all our colleagues.
What can you expect from learning and development at Midcounties?
We want to make lives more rewarding and are committed to investing in a variety of learning and development opportunities to help our colleagues shape their own career path.
Quick Links
On i.learn, your online learning platform, you’ll find a variety of courses from compliance training, refresher training, management resources and more, you’ll be able to book onto some of our courses and to search useful documents, videos and links to help you learn and develop at Midcounties.
How do I develop my career?
If you are thinking about progressing your career but you don’t know what the next step is or how to get there, arrange a Development check-in with your line manager to discuss your options.
You can request a Development Check-in with your manager to discuss the frameworks and your next steps – click here for more information about Check In’s.
You'll also find useful information to support with your development on the next tab 'Developing Yourself'.
What are Our Co-operative Colleague and Leader Frameworks?
Our Co-operative Colleague and Leader Frameworks help you grow and succeed by making expectations clear and consistent. They show what great looks like, align with our Society goals and values, and create a shared language for performance, making communication easier and progress clearer. These frameworks are not just about standards - they're about helping our remarkable colleagues to develop, thrive and make a real impact.
Take a look at our Co-operative Colleague Framework and our Co-operative Leaders Framework.
What is the Career Framework guide?
The Career Framework guide clearly describes what knowledge and experience is required within each job family and at each level of the Society.
What is the career framework roadmap?
The career framework roadmap enables you to easily navigate through different areas of the business to see what career path options you have, either where you currently work or elsewhere in the Society, along with what development opportunities are available to make that next step. It is a really useful tool for colleagues and managers when having career and development check ins.
A great starting point when it comes to developing yourself is to request a development check in with your manager to talk about your development needs and create a Personal Development plan.
Your personal and professional development is important and we have a range of resources to help you build up your own awareness, knowledge and skills, enabling your performance to be great and for you to progress your career.
Our learning resources are available in many forms, ranging from articles, podcasts and video’s, through to eLearning modules and Live Online sessions.
These resources can all be found within “Your time to focus on you” on our learning platform, i.Learn by clicking here.
Each trading group has its own dedicated learning area on i.learn. Please follow the links below to explore the wide array of learning resources that are available to you:
L&D Calendar
We have created a quarterly Learning and Development calendar to inform you of the ‘Opportunities to Develop’ available to you and the training required to be completed each quarter.
Click here to access the Q4 2025 Learning and Development Calendar
The Thrive Community is a gateway for ambitious colleagues who have the desire to become a future member of the Executive or Senior Leadership Team.
The aim of the Thrive Community is to provide the colleagues with a platform to showcase their ambition, seek out and put themselves forward for opportunities, as well as gaining exposure to the Executive, Senior Leadership Team and challenging environments.
Being in the Thrive Community requires time, dedication and commitment and colleagues will be expected to engage in the opportunities presented to them, as well as taking ownership for their own professional and personal development.
Watch this space for more information on how to apply for the Thrive Community!
What is an Apprenticeship?
Apprenticeships are work-based qualifications where you are working towards a nationally recognised qualification, whilst gaining real-work experiences through paid employment.
Apprenticeships are for anyone over the age of 16, who are;
- early on in their career
- looking to upskill in their current role, or
- looking for a career change
Apprenticeships can be achieved in Levels 2-6, and provide you with the knowledge, skills and behaviours needed to succeed in a particular industry, sector or role.
Whilst on an apprenticeship, you will need to spend 20% of your working week completing essential training to help you gain the skills needed to complete your apprenticeship.
This ‘off-the-job’ training can include:
- attending or completing training e.g. through attending workshops, joining virtual classrooms or completing online learning
- completing practical training e.g. through shadowing, mentoring or undertaking new tasks
- any learning support or time taken to write your assignments
What is LEAP?
LEAP (Learning, Earning, Achieving, Progressing) is our brand name for our Apprenticeship programmes, which enables our colleagues across all our Trading Groups and Support Services to apply to complete an apprenticeship.
Our LEAP Apprenticeships are open to existing colleagues who are looking to progress and develop their career within the Society. We have apprentices across all our Trading Groups on a variety of apprenticeships including; Level 3 Early Years Educators in our Early Years nurseries, Level 4 Retail Managers in our Food stores, and Level 3 Travel Consultants in our Travel branches. There are also apprenticeship opportunities for colleagues in our Support Services, including but not limited to; Level 3 Team Leader and Level 5 Operations Manager, as well as apprenticeships relating to specific teams and roles.
Sounds interesting?
If you’re interested in finding out more about an apprenticeship, please book a Check-in with your manager to discuss your development needs and aspirations, and what your options are.
For any apprenticeship enquiries, please contact the People Development Team through ServiceNow to request further information. Please click here to submit your query.
How do I log into i.Learn?
Click here to acces i.Learn. Sign in using the Single Sign On option, using your full Midcounties UPN username (e.g name.surname@midcounties.coop) and password.
I can’t remember my i.learn password or log in...
I.Learn is linked to all Midcounties IT systems, therefore passwords will be set/reset via FastPass.
Please note- this will reset your details for all Midcounties systems.
I recently joined the Society and don’t have a log in yet, how do I get into i.learn?
Your line manager will receive an email with windows account details, this may be 24 hours after your start date. You can then choose your own password using our FastPass system.
If you have not received your login details after 24hours of joining the Society, please raise a ServiceNow request for IT by clicking here.
Do I have to mark my colleagues exempt for different courses? (For example, Age-restricted / PCI-DSS)
Exemptions apply to all courses. Colleagues should be marked as exempt if they are out of the business for more than 4 weeks due to Parental Leave, Long-term Sickeness, or if colleagues have specific learning requirements.
Contact Us
We hope some of the FAQs on this page might help answer your queries, but should you require further assistance, please contact the People Development Team via ServiceNow.
Click here to submit your query.