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Aldi trainee graduates get £40,000 plus Audi
Ellen Widdup14 Jan 2009
A SUPERMARKET is offering graduates a starting salary of £40,000 plus a company car as job vacancies for university leavers fall by a fifth.
Retailer Aldi is today named the best-paying recruiter offering 150 places on its training scheme, up from 100 last year.
The company is bucking a national trend which has seen leading employers scaling back recruitment drives and downgrading targets despite receiving more applications.
A study by market research firm High Fliers has found that City jobs, such as those in investment banking, are the worst hit. It also interviewed 1,000 final-year students, 87 per cent of whom were not confident they would get a job upon qualifying.
Dan Ronald, regional managing director for Aldi, which broke into the world's top 10 retailers yesterday with a 25 per cent increase in British sales, admitted his company may not be the first choice for many graduates.
However, he said that because the trainee scheme offered the best possible salary and excellent prospects the firm was receiving about 2,000 applications for every post.
"Nobody grows up wanting to be a discount retail executive," he said. "But if you look beyond the job title, it's a people-focused job that offers great opportunities for progression. We are now talking to graduates from Oxford, Cambridge, Durham, Bristol and other leading universities." Aldi graduate trainees learn their trade from the shop floor and will start with stacking shelves. The salary is £40,000, rising to £60,000 after three years, and each trainee gets an Audi 4 car.
The pay beats the £39,000 offered at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and the £38,000 at Slaughter and May, which top the list of law firms that make up most of the best-paying firms for graduates, according to a survey for The Times Top 100 Graduate Employers.
Reader views (9)
ALDI's websites all advertise their director and management personnel as young and recently graduated from a college or university. I would like to know the percentage of directors and managers who are over the age of 40 who also have the appropriate college credentials.
- Know Your Rights, Peoria, Illinois, 17/02/2009 14:15
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Having worked as part of Aldi's graduate scheme I have to say that I heartily recommend it. Ok it's hard work, but if you're being paid £40,000 to supervise people stacking dog food (as I was) I'm not complaining. We'd have to make sure that all the tins were facing forward with the dog's face towards the customer and then I'd just bomb around in my RS4 that Aldi gave me and chat to some of the customers out of the driver side window and shout at some plebs to clear up the trollies. Occasionally i'd have to get out of the car and shout at someone to clear up a spillage on aisle 2 but then I'd go back to doing handbrake turns in the car park and setting up a mini slalom around the trollies.
I would recommend the job to anyone who likes shouting at people and fast cars, but isn't talented enough to get on Top Gear. Actually I used to work on Top Gear too but that's another story.
- Reginald Fah-Fah, Weston Super Mare, 27/01/2009 11:56
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mmm average shelf life for district managers at Aldi and Lidl is 18mths as they are worked for that 40k. The dm jobs an all year rolling ad, i trained more than 10 over 2xyr period they come in all fresh n bouncy ;6mths in theyve no idea whats hit em 20 hrs shifts, constant auditing and ate store checks n inventorys on their 4-5 stores. still after 5 yrs they cld make to b a director if theyve got the stamina....its a good buzz but they have veried work ethic ze germans
- Frmr Emplyee, d' hurst, uk, 14/01/2009 22:45
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Never had a graduate who was worth £20,000 never mind £40,000. The ones that I interview are looking for high salaries but do not have the core skills or experience that my company require.
- Andrew W1, London, 14/01/2009 20:34
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Im guessing the Audi is a company car so the post about getting into debt with an Audi is rubbish. If you want the best, you have to pay, and in difficult times Aldi is taking the right approach by trying to attract the best staff it can.
- Non Graduate, London, 14/01/2009 20:18
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Suppose it will help them pay off debts, then get into more debts by having a Audi 4, Insurance etc..
Not bad for stacking shelves......
- Adrian, london, 14/01/2009 17:30
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Age discrimination...???? if so ????, I wish they would start a home delivery service, if they would, good-by TESCO for me.
Vivere
- Vivere, Herts., 14/01/2009 17:04
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Age discrimination legislation has nothing to do with it. They are advertising for graduates not young people.
This shows Aldi will probably become one of the best and fastest growing supermarkets over the next few years as they cream off all the best and brightest - well done to them for being long-sighted!
- Liberal And Proud, London, UK, 14/01/2009 15:53
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They are only doing this to get round the recent introduction of ageism legislation.
- S Simpson, London, 14/01/2009 14:58
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