Placement Student Review

I highly enjoyed my time whilst working within Lidl. The different rotations around the departments allowed for a large variety whilst recieving great support from colleagues. This placement requires a lot of hard work but is very rewarding. It is a good foundation to start your career within Lidl or for future graduate schemes.

Within the different departments they give you a lot of responsibility, allowing you to take on vaired roles. This autonomy meant that the team valued your work and relied on your skills and knowledge of the role. Therefore, if you put in the work to understand the roles your colleagues will value you greatly.

There are different levels of support throughout the company. This can be from the regional director to the other placement/graduate colleagues. You have support from your regional training consultant and the management within each department you work in. This means that you always have someone to turn to for any inquirys.

Lidl moves at a fast pace and the teams can sometimes be lean. There is something always to be getting on with and this reflects onto the workload that you are given. The workload can be challenging but achievable. However, if work load is not there then projects are given to aid the department and your own experiences.

The responsibility within each departments can be high. If you put in the work then managers will give you the responsibility you want. From my own experiences: I ran store shifts; took on whole task lists for a colleague during holiday cover in supply chain and acted as an assistant team manager within logistics.

As I am doing a business degree this was a really good foundation to develop the skills and theory I was taught at university. However, it also gave me a real life context which I don't think could be taught on paper. The placement taught me how to adapt in different situations, develop people skills and give me the experience for future careers.

In my experience the rotational aspect to the placement was organised very well. I was given a timetable of the year and told where I would be at certain times. When in every department I was given a training plan/project to allow me to set goals and review them at the end of my rotation.

Lidl is very invest in training. Whilst in store you go to training courses every two weeks to learn about the different areas within the store and then you get to impliment these learnings in store. In supply chain you train for at least 2-4 weeks where a colleague will teach you a certain task and then you will go and try for yourself. They also provide other training courses that you can go on such as excel courses, mental health awareness, conflict management.

My future prospects for Lidl is very appealing. Lidl do not offer graduate schemes without attending an assessment centre therefore, I have been invited back to take part in one this coming January. Due to the graduate scheme being similar to the placement scheme they have stated that if I am to be successful that they will be able to personalise this more for me.

In my region I was the only placement student therefore in my region interacted with the my graduate colleagues. However, Lidl to provide training and social activities 3 times throughout the placement. The first one allows you to meet all the placement students in the country; the second provides training and a catch up and the final one is a farewell event with an awards ceremony. This allowed for good bonds to be created.

Within my time in my placement there was not a great amount of opportunities to get involved in outside of work. There are summer and Christmas events which allow you to socialise with colleagues and other aspects like charity events but there is minimal opportunities outside of this to get involved in.