apprentice Review

my job title for the year was an apprentice sales advisor. this meant I provided customer service on the shop floor and till on a daily basis. I promoted beautycards and star buys. I also helped with date coding on a weekly basis making sure everything was reduced according to the policy and taken off before the sell-by date.

I have learnt how to deal with promotion change every 4 weeks and regularly take part. I now deal with changing blips, side stacker units and gondola ends too rather than just the shelf tags. I also have taken a managerial role in store and am completing a team leader qualification.

I have thoroughly enjoyed completing my apprenticeship in store. I have gained more confidence and personality as I have dealt with more customers more frequently. I luckily work with a very good team who have supported me in completing the qualification to the very best standard.

I feel very valued when working in Superdrug. my managers always push me to be the very best in store and helped me to complete it fully. my area manager has also supported me and the regional manager regularly checks in to find out the progress on my beautycard project I have put in place in store.

it is organised into easy to understand sectioned workbooks, which are planned through the monthly visits. these are kept in a well labelled folder which I have access to at all times. the visits are planned on a specific sheet which outlines what work needs to be completed. this makes it very easy to keep track of what needs finishing.

my trainer was very accessible throughout the entire programme. I has many different options of contacting her - phone, text or email in between visits. also I could talk to her in my visits regarding any work I did not know, or any problems in store should there be any. these discussions were kept confidential where they needed to be.

I have received a lot of support from my manager kara in store, as she helped me complete my qualification and pushed me to make my designs for our in store beautycard and own brand projects better. the company was very good at supporting me as I regularly spoke to our area manager and visited the regional manager. I also visited London head office for a meeting with jerry and Kendra regarding the apprentice of the year competition, which I made the final four.

the salary was quite low however as I still live at home and do not need to travel so this was fine for myself. I feel if I was not at home I would not have been able to cope on the provided salary. It has recently increased which means it is a lot better for people who may be older.

there were opportunities to go and work at a different store, this was to boost my project work in store. this would have shown if it was as effective in a different store. I also got to visit the head office in London for the day to meet other apprentices.

Yes

it is a very good company to be in and to progress further. I started as a normal sales advisor and now am training to be a team leader in store. there are also lots of people available to support you at all times.

when applying for superdrug you should show that you can talk to a different range of people, but can also show ways you can develop in store. you should show you are able to promote special offers in store and that you are willing to learn the training methods which are put across in the company.