Placement Student Review

On the whole my time with Lidl has been a pleasure, over the course of 11 months I been exposed to several different departments and it's this variation across the programme I really enjoyed as you never feel stuck in one department for too long.

Whilst in store I felt valued as part of the management team due to running shifts and then in the distribution centre across the other departments I become one of the team who split up tasks throughout the day so I constantly felt of value.

During my time in Lidl I can't fault the support I received from my regional training consultants. Whenever I felt like I was unsure or I had a query about what I was doing I knew I could refer to them and they'd either give me the direction I needed or point me in the direction of the person I needed to see.

Whilst in store and working in the offices I was always busy due to the workload in these departments and there's nowhere to hide. The only place I felt less pressured and busy was during my time in the warehouse due to a higher number pf managers on shift.

Across the placement I was given responsibility across multiple departments, from doing opens, closes and running shifts in store, conducting individual site visits in property to analyse new potential sites and completing a my own regional project that I then presented back to senior management.

The skills I've developed during my year will be extremely useful moving forward in my career and beyond but maybe less of importance to my studies, it's more the experience you gain that's beneficial to your studies.

Working across a multitude of offices around the business allows you too soak up different atmospheres and business relations. The variation from offices to store and then warehouse is great to be a part of.

The placement scheme is set up well, there were a few communication blips along the way between head office and my region but they were always resolved in the best way possible as quickly as possible.

The company invested a lot of time and effort in me regionally as I was always invited to things that they felt would enhance my personal development and me and my training consultant would regularly sit down to discuss my training.

The future employment opportunities within Lidl are brilliant, the option of joining the graduate scheme once you finish university or applying for a direct entry job. As well as this the development and opportunity for promotion once in the business is something I've witnessed on multiple occasions.

Yes, during my time at Lidl I've got to share the experience with fellow placements students across the country and we regularly speak about our time and experiences across our seperate regions.

The cost of living in Cardiff was expensive however you are the middle of a large city with easy access to the city centre as well as being a short drive from smaller seaside towns.

The nightlife in Cardiff is superb, it has a wide variety of clubs and bars to fit whatever mood or kind of person you are. I had previously been here before to visit friends from university so I already knew what to expect from the nightlife and it didn't disappoint!

There wasn't many opportunities to get involved in activities outside of work, this is partly due to moving departments regularly therefore it was difficult to organise anything concrete. However, of the activities I did attend they were organised and everyone enjoyed themselves.