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This study has identified fundamental barriers to the successful implementation and completion of Modern Apprenticeships (MAs) in the retail sector. These are related to the culture of the sector, including the mobility of young workers who frequently change jobs and the preoccupation with serving the customer, which can restrict and fragment training and development opportunities. The stresses and strains of this working environment, which is shaped by the immediate and predominant demands of sales transactions and customer relations, do not provide conditions that are generally conducive to working towards and achieving an MA. This situation has serious implications for the credibility of the qualification as well as for the likely impact on the intermediate level skills of the workforce in this sector. Low completion rates, especially in such a large industrial sector as retailing, will continue to undermine the perceived value of the MA framework and threaten its perceived importance, by the Government and others, as a tool for developing young people's skills. As far as the promotion of MAs is concerned, it is essential to identify the key characteristics of strategies that have proved effective in encouraging employers and young people to use them more widely and to see them as valuable opportunities for staff development.