Commercial Trainee Review

I am a commercial trainee, spending 6 months in marketing, sales, supply chain, and HR, before specialising in 1 function for the final year. Alongside this I am completing a degree in Professional Business Practice at Sheffield Hallam University. Specific roles in placements vary, and can include marketing executive, warehouse shift manager, HR advisor, or working on a customer business team. Currently I work in Marketing where my role involves leading projects and supporting the everyday running of the brand.

Alongside the academic training from the degree, commercial trainee's are also put on an internal leadership training course, which has helped me to develop key management and leadership skills that will become more and more useful as I progress through my career. My biggest personal development has been in my own confidence and interpersonal skills, which have hugely improved since joining the business.

I absolutely love the Fast Start Programme. Everyone that I have worked with has been so friendly and supportive, and not only are we encouraged to learn as much about the business as possible, we are also challenged to push ourselves and produce great work, which I really enjoy. The benefit of doing the degree at the same time is that it helps me keep an open mind about the way other companies work, and develop a well rounded business understanding, and it also gives me the opportunity to apply what I learn at university to business situations straight away.

Nestlé are making a huge investment in the scheme, and I've really felt that over the course of my time here. We get a lot of contact with the academy team, and increased exposure to the Senior Leadership Team. In addition, the amount of leadership coaching and training we recieve also shows that the business really believes that fast starters can become leaders in the future.

The programme is very organised. We attend university every 6-8 weeks for 1 week at a time, and have visibility of these dates for the year ahead. We are also given reasonable notice of our next placements, and the dates that we move

The support from university has been getting better, but previously we have had problems getting marks from assignments back on time, and having useful feedback to support the grades. Whilst we are at the university the support is fantastic, but when we're back in the office it becomes more difficult.

When we start we are given a buddy and a mentor, who are there to help create a support network with you alongside your manager. Your buddy is another young person within the business who can help with day to day issues and questions, and your mentor provides more long term career advice and support. We also have close links with the academy team who will help if we are having any issues.

All costs associated with the degree (tuition fees, travel, meals, accommodation) are paid for by Nestlé, which really helps make the salary go further. I live with my girlfriend who also works full time, so I think I would probably find it more difficult if I was living on my own with just my salary to support me. Having said that, it would still meet all my costs, but leave me with less disposable income.

There is a good community of young people in Nestlé, and York is a great place to live with lots of different pubs and restaurants. The weeks in Sheffield are also really good as we can spend time socialising in the evenings as a group of 12.

Yes

Nestlé is a great company to work for and they offer excellent opportunities for you to build your career. They're also really passionate about developing people which is very encouraging.

The application process is quite long and rigourous, but ultimately they're looking for people who will be hard-working, ambitious, and genuinely interesting in learning about how the business process, so as long as this comes through then you should get pretty far!