Year 10 Work Experience 2005

Name of the Work Experience placement:

Marks And Spencers, The Mall, Cribbs Causeway

Type of work experience:

• Retail

How did you get there each day:

• Parents gave me lifts.

In general, what sort of things did you have to do:

• Pack bags, sort clothing, help customers, answer phones.

What did you think of the work experience:

• I enjoyed it, but it wasn’t very exciting.

Daily diary:

• Monday:
  • On Monday, I was taught all of the fire procedures and was shown where all the emergency exits were. I was also instructed where to go in case of a fire roll call. In the afternoon I sat in on a training session from the HR manager (Caroline) of Marks And Spencer, this was just teaching the new members and also work experience pupils like me how to treat customers and what the Marks And Spencer rules were.
• Tuesday:
  • On Tuesday I was taken to the shop floor and was able to help the sales assistants in the ladies wear section of Marks And Spencer (Per Una). I was given a uniform and badge and the staff on Per Una were very patient and friendly.
• Wednesday:
  • On Wednesday I did the same thing as Tuesday but by now I had begun to get the hang of how the store worked therefore did not need as much help as the previous day. I helped out at the fitting rooms, answering customer questions and helping customers, I also worked on the tills, packing bags for the customers, as I was not old enough to operate a till.
• Thursday:
  • On Thursday I was put with the Visual Merchandising staff, they are the people in charge of the advertisement, displays in store and mannequins. I was made to feel very welcome and learnt about how to position things to make them look more attractive to the customer. I was taught how to dress mannequins, arrange stock and display accessories.
• Friday:
  • Friday was probably the most boring day of my work experience, but I still enjoyed it. I was allowed to choose where I wanted to be working, eg. With visual merchandising (VM) or back on the shop floor helping the Per Una staff.

Any special skills that were needed:

• Communication – Talking to customers.
• Confidence-Putting forward my ideas to VM (Visual Management)
• PR

Any other requirements such as special clothing or safety equipment:

• How to lift and carry heavy objects.
• What to wear when going into the freezer section of the warehouse. (Eg. Gloves)