Industrial Placement Review

My University placement at Aldi has been fantastic and I would highly recommend it to other students looking to apply. The placement has taught me a huge range of skills that I can now apply to both my final year studies and my future career. I have thoroughly enjoyed the levels of responsibility and exposure that Aldi have allowed me to embrace and I feel that they have led to great development both professionally and personally.

Aldi operate a culture of very high expectation and it is very much a place of work which rewards you in relation to what you put in. Colleagues definitely notice good performance and high effort levels, however due to such high expectation levels your good performance is expected as the norm. Colleagues don't hesitate to give praise, however if you are someone who seeks positive feedback very often then this may not always be the case.

The support and guidance felt from above at Aldi is great. Aldi provide market -leading standards of training especially at Management level. Regular check points and meetings are scheduled by supervisors to ensure your training process is covering all bases. If there are areas you are struggling with, then extra training can be easily put in place to resolve this. Aldi are aware that there is a lot to learn at Management level and so they therefore provide excellent training and support where needed.

If you do not like working at speed/working in a physically active environment then an Aldi store is not for you. A day at work at Aldi is extremely fast paced and there are always numerous tasks that employees can be getting on with. Aldi train their staff to be multi-skilled which means they can specialise in any area of the store. You will never find yourself bored or looking for jobs to do at Aldi!

The responsibility given to you at Aldi is what makes their placements some of the best in the country. From the day you start working for the business you are treated and valued as a responsible and fully capable member of staff. This is especially motivating for young University students as this will most likely be your first taste of 'proper' work in which you can have a real impact on a huge, multinational business.

My training and development at Aldi has undoubtably allowed me to better myself as a person both academically and professionally. My experiences from the placement have allowed me to grow in confidence and have greatly improved my business/commercial knowledge. Learning to effectively work both alone and as part of a team as well as manage time are also skills that will massively help my final year studies. Working for Aldi really makes you feel as though you have grown up!

The atmosphere in Aldi's Head Office is great. Everyone is extremely kind and approachable which really makes you feel at ease when you first start out. Spending time working in the office allows you to gain experience within a real, professional environment and helps broaden your awareness of what goes on behind the scenes of such a huge business. The professionalism of the office also massively improved how I present myself and how I interact with others.

Aldi's placements are incredibly organised. From your first day you are provided with a year-long plan which outlines every key date and event that you need to be aware of. Whenever the plan changes or there are things that need to be shuffled round slightly, Aldi always make sure to let you know and provide an updated timetable. I didn't experience any signs of mixup and was always notified of any changes well in advance.

Aldi make sure that you follow your training plans successfully and provide regular checkpoints/updates to ensure this is the case. A variety of training methods are used within Aldi placements such as online modules, real work place tasks and also grading sessions where you can show what you have learned to your mentor. I felt as though my training was taken extremely seriously by my mentor and when I reached the end I felt that I had covered all bases.

The thought of returning to Aldi for future employment is great and I believe it would lead to an extremely interesting and rewarding career. The skills and experience you learn whilst on placement at Aldi fully prepare you for the chance to return to work full time with the business after University and I believe that it would be hard to find such an opportunity elsewhere. Placement students who return go on to start their own successful careers.

Aldi do a great job of recruiting like-minded placement students. My intake all got on well and I managed to meet some great people from other Universities.

The cost of living and socialising where I worked was fine as it wasn't too expensive. One of the big benefits of Aldi's placement is the pay they offer which means that on days off/whenever you were free you had the money to be able to enjoy yourself. This is great for University students who may have previously not had as much free cash in their previous first and second years and it gives you a real taste of a full time job lifestyle.

The night life where I worked was great, however working at Aldi with a hangover is definitely not recommended!

Aldi give you 2 days off a week so during those days you are obviously free to do whatever you want with the money you earn! the shift patterns at Aldi sometimes mean you finish at 3/4pm which is great if you have any plans after work for those days. I had no issues at all socialising out of work / balancing a work life balance as the variety of shifts mean you can always plan different things.