Apprentice of Warehouse Management Review

Now that I am finishing my apprenticeship I am doing the role of logistics deputy (supervisor level), involving the smooth running of day to day activities including planning the shift, checking warehouse inventory and stock levels, recording information to spreadsheets and solving and issues with stock.

Since starting my apprenticeship I have grown as a person and gained lots of new skills such as working within a team, managing staff, reach truck / counterbalance forklift training.

The overall apprenticeship has been quite the ride and he changed me as a person allowing me to develop into a part of the business. Meeting lots of new and different people and saying good bye to some, learning lots of new job roles within the warehouse and seeing how different departments intermingle and operate.

Definitely part of the team by section leaders / management. Aldi has been improving with inter-relations between management and employee, however there is still some room for improvement.

From the apprenticeship qualification side it has been very bumpy, having meetings roughly once a month with first supplier of training but with the outcome unplanned prior to the visit. This made it so that sometimes when the trainer arrived I did not have the skills or knowledge to progress. With our first training provider going into liquidiation, there was a six-eight month gap with no training provided. Aldi’s side has been okay but could have been better as there was a plan set but this was not shared with other departments so sometimes I would arrive and no one expected me. On my last year of training, the most crucial part, I have been pushed around to temporarily solve in house problems rather than to better my own training.

Our first training provider went into liquidation but we had monthly visits prior to this. After six to eight month gap, our second provider started visiting from across the country. This lead to the new person often being late, showing up without us being aware of their visit, or them not showing up at all. With this trainer too, due to the long distance travel, would often elect to have phone call meetings instead- which didn’t always happen. They also did not reply to most emails.

Aldi try everything they can to help myself and the other employees. Friendly management (section leaders especially). I have a section leader dedicated to being my apprenticeship support however most others are friendly and more than willing to help with any needs.

My wage is well above the minimum wage of apprentices nationally, it’s closer to what the actual wage would be. I also receive all the same perks and benefits as all other employees in the company- discounts for things like cinema, gym, private health care, etc.

As said previously I gain all the benefits as everyone else like gym membership discount etc. As for that almost everything has to take place at work- but the staff themselves are open to meeting up for activities.

Yes

Aldi is face paced and still growing as a company within the UK with lots of opportunities and openings. Aldi offers employees the option to climb the management ladder, or to even gain new skills like driving different types of truck - fork lift, reach truck, road heavy goods vehicles (store deliveries). Aldi is also very helpful for employees looking to transfer to another region or store.

Be ready for hard working days and a lot of working hours. You will start at the bottom but can very quickly climb up that ladder to the better roles. But it’s not easy, you need to show the dedication that you can and will do it! They don’t like people who sit back and relax, Aldi needs you to be as fast paced and growing like the company does.