Industrial placement Review

I found the placement really enjoyable. I was able to gain valuable insight into the company whilst being offered a high level of responsibility throughout the 12 months. I experienced a variety of roles within the company and was able to see the business from multiple aspects.

Having been given a lot of feedback throughout the placement I was able to ask questions and develop my knowledge of the retail sector as a whole. Overall I felt valued by the company and appreciated.

I was given a lot of support from every supervisor I had. On average I would get feedback every month and have targets to work towards. This helped with strengthening areas of weakness and allowed me to allocate more time to developing those.

My placement was extremely busy but very structured in terms of my learning. The first half of the placement was all shift work, being in stores and on the shop floor, followed by Head Office and Project work where my working days were Monday-Friday.

I had an incredible amount of responsibility in terms of being able to run a store and manage a team of people. In comparison to other placements Aldi gives their placement students a lot more responsibility when it comes to experiencing the most realistic version of what the job entails.

I developed a multitude of skills over the course of the placement and can already see these being transferable in my university degree. My appreciation for organisation in a working environment will significantly help me over the course of my final year and have left me feeling prepared for my final year.

My “office” environment was constantly changing over the course of the placement, from store offices to a head office environment. The atmosphere was always professional but friendly.

The placement itself was very well structured and planned. We were made aware of any changes to the timetable well in advance but the majority of the year was extremely organised for us. It was also reassuring to start at each new store and receive a training plan for the forthcoming weeks.

I think Aldi invested a lot into my personal training, particularly at the end of the placement when we presented back our project ideas. They were very interested in listening to the information we had found and were curious to find out what our opinion on certain issues were.

Employment prospects are extremely appealing within Aldi. They offer a graduate scheme which you are considered for throughout the placement.

There are smaller groups of placement students within each region because you apply to a specific area as a pose to applying to the company as a whole. This meant you worked with fewer placement students, particularly during store time when you are put in your individual areas.

The majority of my costs were related to petrol.

I worked from home so it was an area I was already used to.

There were a few events, one in particular was a charity walk for the whole region.