Industrial placement Review

I have absolutely loved my placement year. It has provided me with many opportunities for development and I have learnt so much. It has definitely been challenging and it involves more work and dedication than many other placements, but if you thrive in a high-pressure and busy environment then it's definitely one of the best placements on offer.

During store you are valued by everyone and people respect you as they know you could be returning as an area manager. Maintaining this respect is obviously dependent on you working hard and being valuable to the team, but everyone is really friendly and willing to help you and teach you so that you can become really part of the team. During the time at head office you also feel very valued, everyone knows that the work you are completing for projects is important and therefore they are willing to give you plenty of help and support.

At the beginning of the placement you are given an Area Manager as your mentor. They are the Area Manager for the first store you work in and therefore you see them regularly and build a strong relationship. You also shadow them multiple times throughout the year which again strengthens the relationship. They are there to offer you support for the whole year and you can always contact them to ask any questions. My mentor has been brilliant for the year and has pushed my learning and development, whilst also giving me great advice. You also have regular updates with your assigned Director, which are useful for knowing where you are in terms of development, but you should already know this as your mentor will regularly give you feedback and areas to focus on to improve.

At all points in the placement you are very busy. In store it is very hands on, and you are expected to work hard so that the store runs well. If you are passionate about the job then this is no problem, and the time goes really fast. In Head Office you are given many projects within a short time so it requires good time management and dedication to complete them all, but again, this is not a problem because you know how valuable the work is.

Aldi definitely give you more responsibility than most placements. You are able to run shifts, open and close the store, order the stock and manage the safe. You are given plenty of support and trained to do all of this first, but you are expected to be proactive and eager to learn how to do this. Also if you make a mistake, such as place a bad order, it is not a problem as they recognise that you are given a lot of responsibility very early on, but you just need to ensure you learn from your mistakes and don't do it again.

The skills you learn and the work ethic it provides are second to none. At the end of the placement you have a meeting about whether you will be invited back to train as an Area Manager, so if you get offered this then the placement gives you a great head start in to your training.

everyone in head office was very friendly and willing to help if you had any questions. The atmosphere in store is dependent on what store you are in, but from my experience everyone is friendly and hard-working which leads to a really good and co-operative working environment.

On the first day you get a structured training program which is really useful for knowing where you should be in your training. There are regular updates planned on with your store operations director which means you consistently get feedback on your performance. Having a mentor also means you have someone who you can ask any questions you may have and will give you advice. The structure of the year is also good as the first 3 weeks are spend with your mentor so you get a thorough induction in to the business, then you go in to store so you learn all about the business from the store perspective and develop your leadership skills. You then go to head office and you can improve the company as a whole and use the knowledge you gained in store to ensure your projects are relevant. Throughout the year you spend time with the area mangers so you keep perspective on where you ultimately can end up if you get offered a place on the graduate scheme.

Aldi definitely invests in its people. It is no secret that the wage is one of the highest offered to placement students. However they also invest in you by how much time and effort everyone puts in to your training. As a placement student you do have to push your own learning, but everyone will support you in that. It's clear Aldi invest in you because they give you so much responsibility throughout the year.

I have been offered a place on the graduate scheme which is ultimately what I wanted from the placement year and I'm definitely looking forward to coming back, and I feel that I have a much better understanding of the business and the expectations so I can do really well, and I also know that's it's definitely what I want to do.

It's up to you how much contact you have with colleagues. It's difficult during store time to meet up with with other placement students because of working times, but you spend a lot more time together in head office.

I lived at home as did all of the placement students so it was fine. They usually put you in a store that's within a half an hour drive of where you've said you will live, and then it just depends how far you live from head office.

As I lived at home, the nightlife surrounding where I work isn't really relevant because you would just go out where you live if you wanted to.

Aldi is currently raising money for teenage cancer trust so there are a lot of charity events going on if you wanted to get involved with those.