Industrial Placement Review

My placement year with ALDI, has been a great year in terms of developing my skills. The placement allows you to develop as a person, and learn a multitude of new skills. ALDI value you as an employee, placing a great deal of trust in you from the first day. The placement allowed me to experience a number of different areas within the business which is great to see.

At ALDI giving feedback is key, I was given a great deal of support from my manager. Further to this, I was given guidance and support from my personnel leader regularly in order to ensure I was achieving targets. This allowed me to develop my skills and achieve targets set.

On a day to day basis, I was busy everyday at work. However, it was all about time management to ensure I was managing my time efficiently in order to do my job effectively. Part of the placement involves store time, so everyday could be different in the tasks I had to complete daily.

From day 1 of the placement, I was given a great deal of responsibility. As my management training progressed, my level of responsibility increased further. Whether this was being responsible for the stores orders, running shifts, managing people, I was accountable for all of these. This made me feel welcomed as a member of the team.

The placement at ALDI features both time in head office and in store. The atmosphere in my store time was very positive, everyone is happy to be at work, get stuck and enjoy there job role. This allowed for a great working environment. With regards to head office, the atmosphere is still very positive, however the environment is more relaxed in comparison than what it is in store.

The ALDI Placement year is structured from day one until the last day of placement. Therefore the set-up of the placement is very organised. Other students on the placement programme follow the same programme which is great to get to know each other. The clear structure allowed me to plan ahead for times such as reviews and holidays throughout the year.

The company invested a great deal in me in terms of training and development. This evident in the training programme ALDI provide to ensure a high quality of training and investment of time into their employees.

The ALDI Industrial Placement programme is a great insight into the business to see whether we in the long term would want to work for the company. All aspects of the placement give you an understanding of a variety of roles within the business from Store Assistants to Area Managers. This allowing for a clear view of what would be expected on the graduate scheme.

At the start of the year, all of the fellow students on the placement programme meet for the region we are working in. This was great to talk with my colleagues throughout the year to see how things are going where they are working and talk to them about my experience. ALDI also allow for the opportunity to meet with all of the placement students which is great to hear about other peoples experiences.

For my placement year the stores I was located in allowed me to move back home, this minimised my cost of living significantly. Therefore in terms of socialising, this was also good as I was around my friends and family. This allowing for a great work life balance throughout the placement year with ALDI, something I feel they value for employees.

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Throughout the placement year at ALDI, there were many opportunities to get involved in activities outside of work. This mainly due to the work life balance I had whilst working for the company. Many of these activities were my personal hobbies that I could still do, however I also got involved in a number of team building events held throughout the placement year.