Apprentice Review

As I have been with the company for over a year and already completed my level 2 I now have the position of deputy manager as a complete my level 3 qualification. This includes the management of staff , holding the safe and helping to manage the availability of stock and monitor wastage and loss . Also as part of the role I can open and close the store .

Working with the company and doing an apprenticeship has definitely helped me to develop many new skills and develop my existing ones . There are lots of opportunities to work as a team and on your own , both of which are great opportunities for learning and improving these skills . Before working here I had very little experience in the managing of a team of people I have since drawn on a wealth of experiences from other management staff who are more than willing to aid in my learning

I do enjoy doing this program. But I do feel like the qualification is very broad and vague , and doesn’t quite fit with my job role . There is a lot of stuff in the qualification that is about push staff to sales targets which is not something that I feel fits with the type of business we are . I know it’s just I general retail qualification but I feel like it could leave some room for you to be more specific about your own job and have more relatable scenarios.

I feel pretty well valued by Aldi . But I do feel like I am slightly taken advantage of as apprentices are a certain percentage off prod. Which means that I do not fully count towards the hours used by the store in effect this means that everyone else gets sent home early if it goes quiet and the only people left are me and the closing manager which is if no benefit to my or any other apprentices learning as they are just left to sit on the till .

I feel like the program is very well structured and otganised especially now that it takes in to account the qualifications that you already have ie don’t have to do any comms or application of number as my GCSE’s are good enough so that I don’t have too .It just about gives you enough sessions with the assessor to get everything completed all the tests coursework and comms / application of number if needed to be done .

I do feel like the training provider are good at providing support to there learners . However as it is a new method of assessing the qualification there are quite a lot of discrepancies between what the accessor says and what is actually right . Not massive things just little things but they do get quite annoying when they tell you to do stuff one way then the next tim ether see you they haven’t looked at what you’ve uploaded and they tell you to do it a different way anyway .

I do receive a lot of support from my employer but it would be nice if my manager was give the time to sit with me and my accessor or even just me and discus my qualification and what I need to do . An example is I have been in Aldi for almost two years and as of yet I have not had a performance review which I need for my NVQ . So if he was given a little of prod time to spend with apprentices that would be of great Benefit to my and my continued progression in my role .

Aldi pays Very well . And there are very little cost that I need that are related to my course in general other than the cost of printing out sheets of paper in the library as I did not have a working printer . Which I have since rectified but it would be nice if they offered you something up front to help with initial step up ie voucher for office supplies.

I’m not really sure what is meant by this question are there many opportunities outside of work for what ?

Yes

Really good rates of pay . Great team of people really fell like a big family . Lots of days of annual leave . It’s a really happy and friendly atmosphere to work in . Which always makes me feel like I am a part of the team so when I do well the whole team benefits

Be as open as possible. Be able and willing to do extra shifts on top of what your contract . Be happy with long ten hour shifts with just a thirty minute break . Happy to work early morning late nights and to do night shifts .