Industrial Placement Review

I had a great experience on the Operations Industrial Placement Scheme with DHL Supply Chain in 2015-16. I worked on the Boots and TK Maxx contract, learning about a wide variety of operational roles including warehouse management, payroll and Health & Safety. The people I worked with made this job highly enjoyable, and the wide variety of tasks I undertook on a day to day basis allowed me to continually develop and learn throughout the year. No two days were the same!

I felt valued by the management team above me, who gave me various responsibilities which I hadn't experienced before. My managers were keen for me to learn and gain as much experience as possible over the year. Additionally the people I worked alongside made me very welcome and part of the team, while teaching me new things and answering any questions I had.

I spent a lot of time learning from managers and supervisors to start with on my placement year, before gradually taking ownership of certain tasks and taking on new responsibilities. Throughout the year we had regular 1 to 1 development meetings to review what I had done and plan for future opportunities. My management had an open door policy - I was always able to ask for help if I needed it!

There was always something to do on site and if I was ever stuck all I needed to do was ask to learn something new. I had plenty of tasks and responsibilities required of me which ensured I was always busy enough. As with all jobs, some tasks were more enjoyable than others but all offered me opportunities to learn something new and make a difference to the business on an operational level.

A huge amount. I spent my first month working with a manager who was set to retire, learning his roles and responsibilities. Once he retired I took over his day to day job, and as the year went on I took on more and more tasks and responsibilities. I was responsible for Health & Safety on site for an external audit, I managed a Princes Trust "Get Into Work" programme for a month which gave me the role as a warehouse manager, and I managed a new payroll system as it was introduced on site, to name just a few responsibilities. All of these experiences developed me as a person and have given me knowledge of operational requirements which enable a business to be successful.

I found that actually working for a business on an operational level allowed me to understand the business management concepts that I learnt at university better, and relate these to real life situations. I found that it is all very well knowing theories about businesses but you must be able to relate these to real life situations to gain a full understanding of a concept. Additionally, my placement year gave me endless case study examples for essays, and I ended up using DHL as a major part of my dissertation!

There was a friendly atmosphere within my office and across site. Everyone was willing to talk to you and get to know you, while everyone offered a helping hand when it was needed. I enjoyed my time here mainly because of the people I worked with, and built some great relationships with the people on site, who I go back and visit from time to time now.

The DHL industrial placement and graduate scheme programmes are generally very well organised, with regular training events and a CSR project throughout the year which allows you to get to know the placement organisers and other placement students and graduates across the business. Regular contact was had with the placement team to ensure everything was going well and that I was being given sufficient opportunities.

DHL invest in training programmes for all members of staff, from Health & Safety training to Certified Supply Chain Specialist training. Additionally, those on the placement scheme received regular management training courses where each placement student comes together for a couple of days of activities and presentations from senior management at a corporate training venue.

I have been given a job on the graduate scheme after completing my placement, which is a two year programme with a guaranteed job at the end. As DHL is such a big company there are so many different opportunities across a variety of sectors around the world and DHL are keen to invest in young, talented people, with graduates spread all across the business.

All the placement students came together a number of times throughout the year for training programmes and CSR projects, allowing us to develop into a close group. We had a few nights out and are still in touch today.

Being based in Birmingham, I lived in shared student accommodation which kept the cost low for me and allowed me to live with my friends from university. Each person got a degree of choice in their location so could arrange to live close to home or university if needed.

As I was living with my uni friends in student accommodation I didn't miss much in terms of nights out!

DHL has a CSR scheme which gives opportunities to get involved with a wide variety of different activities such as taking underprivileged school kids on an activity week, or planning and running a Trucks and Child Safety (TACS) day, where lorries are taken into schools to teach kids about road safety. Additionally, my site put a team in a charity raft race every year, where we build our own raft and competed in a race down a river for charity against a number of other DHL sites.