Industrial Placement Review

The placement has offered me an eye opening experience into the world of retail. For anyone who has an interest in retail and wishes to pursue a career in this field, the Aldi placement is the perfect step. The placement has been incredibly rewarding and enjoyable throughout, with a detailed and extensive training plan allowing me to see all aspects of the business. You start your journey working in store and progress through to Area Management and Head Office time, allowing you to build an extensive picture of how a multi-million pound retail company operates.

I have felt valued throughout the placement. Provided you go into the placement with the correct, hard working attitude, your colleagues and managers will value your input and respect your judgement.

My manager was very supportive throughout the placement. They were open and willing to help should I ever find something tough, or not understand an aspect of my training. I always felt that the door was open should I need any guidance or assistance.

As you may expect, you are constantly kept busy at Aldi. 10 hour shifts in store go by incredibly quick and at the end of your shift you always feel like you've never stopped! Personally, this is the kind of work I love. I wanted to do a placement where I was going to be very active and hands on. The variation in work also helps to keep your days busy.

This is unquestionably the stand out aspect of the placement. Within 4 weeks of being in store, you are in change of running a shift. Within 8 weeks, you will have managed the store safe, opened and closed the store and planned rota's. During my time working with an Area Manager, I was given an area of 3 stores to run for a week, while the Area Manager was on holiday. This was a very rewarding experience, as I had Store Managers with over 10 years experience in retail calling me with questions and queries and I had to respond to issues that arose throughout the week using me own experience and judgement.

The Aldi placement training plan allows you to see every aspect of the business, including in store, Area Management, warehouse, trading and property, giving me a great understanding of the business.

Despite working at Aldi often being high pressure and fast paced, the attitude of the staff is great. The atmosphere is fun to work in and every day always provides a funny story or laugh out loud moment, making it a great environment to work in.

With the exception of a few minor changes, our training plan has been very well organised. It has been great to know exactly what is coming up during each aspect of my training and given me something to aim for.

A huge amount. Considering I was only at Aldi for a year, they invented an awful amount of time in making sure I was trained professionally and extensively. Financially, the company is clearly making a large investment in you, but the level of time is just as extensive.

I would love to re-join Aldi on the graduate scheme. Having invested so much into the placement (and Aldi having invested so much in me) it would be great to continue the journey once I finish my degree. You are informed from day one that this is a golden opportunity to prove yourself. Essentially, it can be treated as a year long job interview.

Due to the long hours, there isn't a great deal of social time planned with fellow placement students. During the first 6 months, we are situated in different stores across the region so don't have time to meet up. However, later on in the placement all students spend time working in Head office, where there is much more opportunity to socialise during this time.

I lived in the same place as university so no change.

I lived in the same place as university so no change.

These opportunities were limited but as you are working 50 hour + weeks, you often want to relax on your days off and make the most of spending this time with family and friends. Having said that, there have been a few activities throughout the year. A 20 year anniversary celebration weekend was arranged for all staff and I also got invited to the Christmas party while I was working in store which was a lot of fun.