Industrial Placement Review

Although there are good days and bad days overall I did enjoy the placement. The work is challenging and varies throughout the year, therefore gives you the opportunity to grow in many different areas, which other palcements do not provide. It also is very focused on the area manager role, as there is a very high chance you will be offered the graduate tole.

By the other Industrial Placement student I felt extremely value, as we became a very cloe group, almost like a family throughout the year. However at times I did not feel valued by the area managers, as I do not think they fully understood the importance of our role, this was difficult to handle throughout the year, however there are some area managers who have made me feel vauled.

In the swindon region we were all given director and area manager mentors, therefore there was alsway someone who could provide guidance and support. My Director mentor made me feel at ease, and I was able to ask any questions when needed. At times my area manager mentor did seem a little distant, and I felt as if i was just an annoyance, however this did depend on who your were allocated.

Due to the 48 hour contract we tended to be very busy most days. During the store time the rate of training is so fast that you tend to work very hard, and may do more than your contract hours. However when we completed our project work the work load did ease up, as we were able to manage our own time.

The amount of responsibilty given during this year was huge. We were allowed to run a whole store everyshit for a 3/4 motnh period, being in charge of the sae and closing up. Furthermore when we were given our projects they were all extremely benefical to the company, with the potential to save the business large amounts of money.

The personal skills I have learnt, for example, time management, team work, will come in extremely helpful next year as I will be able to complete my work effciently and productively. Furthermore I feel I have become much more confident which will help in presentation i must do nest year.

Between the IP's and the staff upstairs the relationship is very comfortably, if you stay on the right side of them! Sometimes there has been tension between IP's and Area managers as they feel they take prority over us, however when we have deadlines for directors this is not the case at all. Sometimes we did feel as if no one knew we were actually meant to be there.

Not very well. The training plan changed constantly throughout the year, and the communication of this was poor. However what the plan changed to was in fatc more beneficial for us, therefore none of us minded too much. If communication was improved then a changing plan would not cause so many issues.

If you pushed for your trainin in store then they would give you 100%, however it was down to you to ensure you recieved all appropriate training, no one will chase you for it. The time spent with the area managers was not very structured, therefore training varied between IP's some doing more than others.

If you would like to be an area manager for aldi then as long as you perform well throughout the year, there is no reason why they would not ask you to return. However the chain of promotion is short, therefore once you have beomce a director, there are few areas to progress from there.

During store time due to the fact that all IP's were on different shifts it was difficult to coordinate any social gatherings. However this did improve during the head office time as we all had weekend off. In the swindon region we were all able to live together therefore the social scene was a bit better as we could organise things easily.

In swindon the housing was quite reasonable, however you needed to be careful of what areas you chose to live in. The price of socalising I would say was average to most areas. Futhermore there is a shopping outlset in swindon which was reasonably priced.

We did not get much chance to experience the nightlife in swindon, as we were working and when we weren't most of chose to go home. However from what I have heard the nightlife is not great, as not many poeple our age are in the area.

Not really, but as we all lived together this didn't cause an issue. This does vary between the region though. The only activities we could realy do were go out for dinner.