Industrial Placement Student Review

I have thoroughly enjoyed my placement at Aldi head offices throughout the past year. It has allowed me to get into a routine of getting up early allowing me to get the best out of myself in the work that I produced. I also enjoyed getting to know a variety of different people within the workplace.

There have been times where I have felt very valued by all of the CR team. On a daily basis my manager and director made me feel very valued and as though the work I have been doing has contributed and impacted the wider business. I have also been able to see how the work I have been doing has helped ease the workload of members of the team.

When being given tasks or projects to work on I would start off trying to figure out the best way to complete them. However, there were times where I was unsure of the best approach to take my manager provided guidance on how to tackle the problem and what I would need to do.

As this was the first year that Aldi had placement students within the head office it was a learning journey for both sides. As the team were unsure as to how much I would be able to work on, at the start of my placement I found I wasn't very busy, however after talking to my line manager I was given more tasks and projects to work on which meant I was busy on a daily basis.

I was lucky to be given projects that meant I could take a lead. During my year at Aldi I was working on projects that were fairly new which mean that I could take a lead and work on them how I wanted, this meant that I was given a lot of responsibility from very early on in my placement.

By completing a placement it has allowed me to develop my time management and organisation skills, this will assist me when I return to university as it will help me juggle my modules better and split time up between the different assignments and exams that I will have to take.

The atmosphere within the office is very friendly. Everyone is willing to provide help and support when needed. I enjoyed working within the office environment as it allowed me to develop friendships with different people and bounce ideas around too ensure that I was taking the correct approach to the work I was doing.

The overall work place was set up very well. There are some areas of improvement as it is the first year the placement scheme was in head office.

The company offered a number of different training courses which I could attend. As well as this, my director and manager were constantly pushing me to develop my giving me difficult to tasks to work on to ensure that I was constantly pushing myself to be the best I possibly could.

The future prospects within Aldi are very high, however it does depend on resource and whether it will be needed when I finish my degree. I have had to show through the work I have been doing whether I would be a suitable candidate to return after I finish my degree.

As there were only four placement students within the head office there was not any socialising outside of work.

I lived at home as the office was a 10 minute drive, so there wasn't a difference in living costs.

There isn't much of a night life within Atherstone, however, Birmingham city centre is a 20 minute drive away and there is a very good nightlife there.

As a CR team we would arrange team night outs to provide an opportunity for everyone to bond and get to know each other outside of the work environment. As well as this, there are a number of volunteering activities in which we can raise money for the Teenage Cancer Trust, Aldi's main charity partner.