Lidl Undergraduate Placement Student Review

Really enjoyed the work placement - it was challenging at time but that is what I wanted from a Work Placement, not an easy ride.

It depends in what part of the organisation. I felt really valued by my support network Regionally and at Head Office but when working in Sales sometimes people could be resentful of you being on the scheme as it is such a great scheme!

The support and guidance was fantastic. I had support regionally and at Head Office who I felt I could contact anytime I had an issue. You email your RTC (Regional Training Consultant) and Placement Co-ordinator every week so you can log all of your learning and hours. If you are working too many hours they can see this and this issue is sorted quickly. If you are not on the right path of learning that is required again this is managed very quickly to ensure all learning objectives are met during the scheme.

This will depend on what area of the company you are in at what time but on the whole very busy. For example the sales Environment is very fast paced and physically and mentally challenging where you are always busy. Whereas in a more office based role it is more mentally challenging, still very busy but in comparison less demanding. When at work I did not have time to think about anything else but work - this had to be your main focus.

A lot of responsibility on the whole but again depended on which department. For example in Sales you had to prove your competencies whereas in more office based roles they assumes you were capable and got more responsibility and interesting projects here.

I never imagined I would gain/develop more skills in a short period of time and you don't realize your development until you really reflect on everything. I have developed my strategic thinking skills, confidence, communication, team working skills, presentation skills, negotiation skills, time management skills, and learnt to be more decisive. All of which will help me in University in my final year and beyond.

Again because I rotated around a lot it depended which area I was in. Just because an office was not fun - did not mean that I didn't enjoy what I was doing. For example I got on really well with people in one office but you didn't interact until lunchtimes.

Really well organised. You have four modules which you choose as you go along the placement as well as 2 weeks in head office. You knew all of these dates when you started at the beginning of placement so your year (apart from your own module choices) is really well planned out from the beginning.

At placement meetings we had fantastic external speaker come in and talk to you about CVs, learning styles, coaching and much more. Whilst on placement you are invited to regional training sessions on things like giving appraisals and customer service training. You have to submit a weekly learning log that shows what you are learning and if you are not on track then this is rectified so you are being trained correctly and are on track to develop to the required standard week to week.

Graduate jobs are very appealing and it will be somewhere I will be applying post graduation for a graduate job. At the moment future employment prospects are unknown as I am still in my final weeks of the placement.

You met with the other placement students 3 times a year at Placement meetings so its a good chance to compare experiences and hints/tips. We also took it upon ourselves to set up our own Facebook group so we keep in contact on here.

Cheap - I lived in Cardiff and was at the Bridgend Region, however I lived in a Student house and area which is why my rent and cost of living was cheap.

Great, Cardiff is amazing but you will have to keep going out to weekends/days off!

To be honest not really but that didn't bother me all that much!