Supermarket chain Sainsbury’s is to recruit 500 staff to work on its counters and cafés over the next year. The firm is also to open six food colleges which will offer training to colleagues working on the meat, fish, deli, hot food and cafés.

Sainsbury’s says the move is intended to meet increased demand from customers for food from the counters and also the retailer’s store expansion plans.

College attendees will receive in-depth training from a team of experts that cover product knowledge, knife/preparation skills and practice, sales, customer service and merchandising, as well as coaching skills so training can passed on when colleagues return to store.

The supermarket expects that over 8,500 colleagues will pass through the colleges each year, although this could rise to up to 10,000.