Date 2016
Region Suffolk
Size 4700 employees
Sector Retail
employees who accessed elearning
%
employees who completed training
years of simulated aging when training in a 'GERT' suit
%
increase in sales realised
Wide reaching benefits to the business and community
Statistics from The Alzheimer’s Society in 2016 show that there are 50,000 people living with dementia in the region with 1 in 14 people over the age of 65 having the condition in the UK. Following the launch of the Government’s ‘Dementia Friendly’ campaign, the East of England Co-op launched the Dementia Friendly Retail programme with the goal of being the first choice of retailer locally for people living with dementia.
Training to meet a real community need
The programme blends e-learning, face-to-face training and a powerful simulation exercise. The unique ‘shopping in their shoes’ experience sees colleagues wear an age simulation suit (GERT suit) that is designed to age the wearer by 30 years, distorting their senses and making movement more difficult. The trainee is then asked to complete tasks such as entering a shop and finding a basic list of items to purchase; not one person from the senior managers’ training session completed the task successfully highlighting some of the challenges that older people may face.
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