Twenty-five years ago, I walked into a Specsavers store to start what I thought would be a gap year job.

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What I found was the beginning of a career. With youth unemployment rising and employment reform on its way, the question Britain must answer is whether young people today will have the same chance I did.

What I found was something I had not expected: a job that gave me responsibility from the beginning.

They trusted me with customers, taught me how the business worked, and showed me that there was a genuine craft to what they did. Within months, I decided to train as a dispensing optician. Decades later, I am proud to be the Managing Director of Specsavers UK and ROI Optics. None of that was part of the plan when I first walked through the door.

In retail, my story is not unusual. One in five people started their careers in the industry - often with just a few hours on a weekend or a part-time flexible role that fitted around school or studies. Retail employs around 780,000 young people aged 16 to 25, accounting for almost a quarter of all youth employment in the........

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