apprentice store manager Review

I’m a store manager so my job involves the running of a store. I do the staff planners, I do most of the admin, daily and weekly paper work, I help work the stock deliveries, I support the team on the shop floor, I deal with most of the training and development of the team, from the recruitment and induction to future development.

I started at Iceland as a cashier so the last few years I have developed my skills and have learnt a lot. Doing the apprenticeship I have learnt more about the way businesses work, specifically retail businesses, I’ve got a greater understanding of marketing, promotions, brand reputations and the laws and legislations that we have to follow.

The programme was definitely tough and required a lot of hard work, but my trainer was amazing and supported me the whole way, the modules were split into topics that made it easier to complete and the way my trainer broke it down for me in questions or bullet points really helped me complete all the work.

The apprentice was broken into sections that made it really easy to follow and understand. My trainer made helpful suggestions to break down the important sections and enable me to take the information I needed. There was also presentations and mock exams to help prepare for the end point assessment.

I received hours each week to be able to complete work and received massive help from both my store manager at the time and my area manager through out my apprenticeship. The company also put on feedback meetings to ensure the programme was working and we were supported, I was also invited to attend various training courses with the business to improve my skill set.

She was absolutely amazing during my course, she was always able to talk me through anything I didn’t understand and offered any help and support. I’ve had to call her before about work or something I’ve been struggling with and she’s always willing to listen or help out. The way she set out our sessions and my independent work was fantastic and made it so easy to follow.

I feel the apprenticeship has developed my skills and understanding of the key topics of retail business for example marketing, brand reputation, management and development and training. The different theories and leadership styles that you can apply to retail and ways to help to develop the store and improve profitability.

At Iceland we tend to try to do various team build exercises and various activities to try to bond as a team and improve our team socially. We currently do not have sport teams or professional networking events to attend however I don’t feel this is relevant to our business

Yes

I started at Iceland 7 years a ago as a part time sales assistant and since then I’ve fallen in love with retail and Iceland. We care about customer service and our staff. We are continuously developing our brand and our products and going from strength to strength. It’s a really exciting time to be with the the company and I’m proud to put on my uniform every day.

Iceland is a fantastic company to work for and anyone would be lucky to work for the company. The talent and progression in Iceland is fantastic and they genuinely care about their staff, your more than just an employee number. Iceland is all about good quality products at good value prices with fantastic customer service.