In a recent round up of Britain’s top graduate recruiters, it was announced that almost 1,000 graduate jobs would be created in 2012 from large retailers including Aldi, John Lewis and Tesco.

The retail sector has long been associated with part time jobs and Christmas temping positions for students, but it now appears that graduates are turning their heads towards a long term career in retail management and supermarkets are their first point of call.

Leading the chains through economic gloom is German supermarket, Aldi who is offering 62 positions on its Area Management Programme with 12 months of intense training and an area of four to six stores after completion. Graduates are trained in areas of leadership, logistics and merchandising and rewarded with a starting salary of £40,000 and an all expenses paid Audi A4 to reflect the amount of work and dedication that is needed to complete the programme.

Supermarkets have the highest amount of graduate vacancies with 537 positions available at Aldi, Tesco, Lidl and Asda. High street stores then follow next with 450 vacancies at John Lewis, Marks and Spencer and McDonalds.

Regional Managing Director at Aldi, Richard Holloway said: "It’s great to see the retail sector is growing so rapidly and creating so many positions for graduates.

"It is an industry that has been overlooked in the past for careers in law, accountancy and media but it now seems graduates are realising the opportunities and amount of responsibility and progression available to them from retail.

"At Aldi, we aspire to be the best and recruit the best, so we offer a very rewarding package while visiting key universities to scout out top talent to join our programme."

Aldi receives 12,000 applications each year for its Area Management Programme and continues to climb the list of top graduate employers. Tesco has fallen slightly but has increased its vacancy number to 400 while Lidl has also climbed and is offering 20 positions. Asda has fallen but has increased vacancies to 55.