Industrial Placement Review

Although being very mentally and physically challenging, with a lot of pressure, the placement overall is great and if you get to know the people that you are working with it is really enjoyable.

There is a lot of responsibility given to students from very early on in the placement and throughout the various stages. Despite being a student you are expected to be able to be a valued member of management in the stores within a few weeks and then once at head office you are given projects and tasks which are of great importance to the business.

In the store the manager and area manager provide guidance and support whenever you require it. At head office, the second stage of the placement, great support and guidance is provided from everyone in the office and regular updates with directors occur.

During the Aldi placement you will never be bored! Whilst in the store, the day to day tasks in the store are vast and no two days are the same. With the responsibility given, every day is busy and lots is expected of you. At head office, the same work ethic applies, and there is a lot expected of you, but it is a great placement for people who don't like doing the same thing every day.

In the store you are required to be in charge for certain amounts of time. This includes opening and closing the shop, being in charge of the safe, health and safety checks, training, ordering and much much more. There is a huge amount of responsibility given from a very early stage. At head office you are often given projects that you are in charge of, these projects can be for the directors so it is very important.

With the placement allowing students to see all aspects of the retail business, from the store to accounts to trading etc, the amount of transferable skills gained doing the Aldi placement is remarkable.

Both in store and in the office, the atmosphere is busy but friendly. The store and the office teams both have a family feel to them, where everyone gets on a looks after each other. Despite this, all staff are hard working and there isn't time to mess around, the business expects a lot from its staff so everyone is hard working at the same time.

The whole training plan is made up in advance of starting the placement, so it was great to know from day one where my time was going to be spent. The detail of the training plan even went into days! It was great to know exactly what I was going to be doing in my placement year.

Both in store and at head office the training is great and the staff are more than happy to help answer any questions you have. The Store training is intense and very fast paced, but there is still a training plan set up with goals and expectations.

The placement scheme can be seen as a stepping stone onto the graduate programme and will reduce the graduate training as the business is already familiar. Staying with the company is very appealing as you know what to expect and what is expected of you so there are no surprises.

Whilst in store you don't really have much time to meet up with other students but you see them in head office during your time there.

I wasn't staying in the area that I was working in as I commuted to work every day. The area that I worked in is relatively cheap compared to where I live.

There wasn't many opportunities to go out in the place that I worked.

There aren't really many opportunities outside of work.