Strategy Project Coordinator Review

I thoroughly enjoyed my year at Volkswagen Group UK Ltd, you get what you put in and there are plenty of opportunities for you to apply your university teachings and make a difference in your day to day role. As there is a large cohort of students both on the Undergraduate and Graduate Scheme there is a young feel in the business and after work. The learning and development on offer at VWG is excellent, I came out of my year with a range of qualifications that will help me in my future career.

Within my role I was given responsibility and was able to take control of specific tasks in large projects. I did't expect to have the sort of responsibility handed to me from day one but it highlights that VWG champion young talent in their organisation. I did however feel unvalued in some instances but a quick informal conversation made sure it didn't happen again and that my time was worthy on certain projects.

I had weekly meetings with my line manager to discuss my progress on specific projects etc. Guidance was given if I asked for certain help but my manager wasn't too focused on aiding my development and help me understand the wider aspects of the department I worked in during my year.

I was busy on a daily basis as my role meant I was on a range of projects. If I was running low on work I did struggle to get more opportunities from my manager but kept busy on other things. In the future it would be nice to have a road map of what my role entails and my manager making sure I was busy rather than me having to ask for more work in some instances.

I was given a large amount of responsibility during my time at VWG, I was involved in large projects and given specific responsibilities linked to project deliverables. As an undergraduate cohort we were given responsibility to investigate specific problems within the business and apply our learning from university to help fix them. This was a very rewarding part of my year at VWG.

VWG mapped out our learning and development from the day we arrived in a structured programme of seminars, training courses and bite size learning sessions. There is also an online platform where employees can sign up to training courses throughout the year and lots of them are available as lunch time sessions so don't take you away from your day to day role.

I worked within the IT department and it was fairly quiet which wasn't great. When I was involved in other projects in brands for example the atmosphere was much better. As I enjoy busier more social environments when I work I found it to be much more productive working in these areas. My manager understood this and allowed me to work in the canteen etc when feasible.

If you look on the VWG website when you apply you see the road map for the year and that was followed to the T. My role was clearly defined and all the courses they said we would attend we took part in . I especially liked the social event before the placement started so we understood more about our role and working at VWG.

VWG invested heavily in me during my year. The structured learning and development plan followed throughout the year helped me improve on key skills like teamwork, time management, presentation and also communications. I also had the opportunities to take part in role specific courses to aid my day to day skills. e.g. Prince2, Management of Risk and Agile PM.

The future employment prospects are highly appealing at VWG. There are a range of direct roles you can apply for if you feel like a graduate type scheme is not for you. Having 5 brands under one roof e.g. SKODA, SEAT, VW, AUDI, VWCV means there is loads of places to work. They have however reduced the size of their graduate scheme.

Milton Keynes is a fairly quiet place but as a cohort we made sure we organised regular house parties and other events. There is a range of sports and social opportunities within employees like football, cycling, netball, running yoga. MK is what you make of it, make sure you socialise and organise stuff and it's OK.

MK is fairly cheap to live but there are areas where you should definitely not rent a house. On the familiarisation day HR discuss all the specifics on living and socialising in MK so you don't need to worry about that. It is worth noting its hard to get hold of a house where more than 3 people can live due to HMO licences.

There isn't much nightlife in MK at all, there is one club and a few bars but as Milton Keynes is so close to London its so easy to hop on a train and spend a night in the big smoke! Due to the dire nightlife we mainly stuck to house parties.

There are lots of opportunities to get involved in stuff outside of work, there is a message board online on the internet where people note local sports clubs and discounted ticket to the cinema, theatre and the mighty MK DONS! Their is a sports and social committee that make sure they organise a range of stuff to get involved in.