HR Assistant Review

I have really enjoyed my placement; I have enjoyed gaining the experience and knowledge that will help me through my final year at university and in my future working life. I also enjoyed working with everyone in my office and the 19 other undergraduates.

As Vauxhall have had undergraduates for years, everyone is really helpful, friendly and understanding and I felt like one of the team straight away. I always get praise from any work I complete and have even had praise and a thank you from General Motors in America for working on a Global project. As undergraduates, we are given a group project to work on throughout the year and we have all been in numerous newsletters/newspapers and even ITV Granada news for the hard work and effort we have completed.

My direct managers are always giving me support and guidence and I am forever gaining their knowledge and learning from their experiences.

I have been busy every day during my placement, my work is always varied and I have had the amazing opportunity to be involved in numerous projects. As my knowledge expands my manager is always keen to give me more responsibility and larger tasks to complete.

I have been given huge amounts of responsibility within my role at Vauxhall, such as managing tasks independently, working on Global projects, making large online payments and organising and representing Vauxhall through numerous events such as See Inside Manufacturing and presenting to the North West Automotive Alliance. I have enjoyed seeing the positive outcome my work produces and learning to use my initiative to work independently. However I always ask for help and advice and my manager is always there to ensure the responsibility isn’t too pressurised.

The skill set I have developed over the last year have been unfathomable, I learn new skills every day and have been on numerous training courses throughout the year. I have been amazed at how Vauxhall are so keen to not only train me to a high standard to be the best I can in my role here, but also to ensure that when I finish I will have a strong skill set for my future working life.

The atmosphere in my office is very friendly and everyone is keen to work together to ensure that each job is done to the best quality possible. Even though it is a professional office and people take their work seriously, we always have a fun atmosphere and always celebrate people’s birthdays etc.

Due to Vauxhall having Undergraduates for years, they have a well-established and organised placement. We all had a thorough induction and we all received tons of training both on and off the job. I have a direct manager and a projects manager; we also have an Undergraduate manager that we can call upon if we have any problems or need any help both work related or personal.

As I mentioned before, Vauxhall really invest in each Undergraduate. They have sent me on any training course available that I have wished to go on and really push me to expand my skill set and increase my knowledge in all aspects of the job.

Even though in Ellesmere Port there isn’t a structured Graduate Programme in place, there are a lot of employees working here now who completed the undergraduate programme at Vauxhall so there is definitely future opportunities within the workforce.

As there are 20 Undergraduates this year and as numerous Undergraduates live together we are all very close. We have nights out and have arranged activities such as Go Karting and Paintball.

Chester is a university city so there is always cheap places to go out and socialise and fortunately the Undergraduates managed to find nice accommodation for the year that isn’t too costly.

There are two big cities - Liverpool and Chester - which are only a short drive/bus/train journey away that have great night life

We receive weekly newsletters which inform all employees of the numerous activities and charity events that anyone can get involved with. And as an undergrad we always planned activities together and had loads of good times!!