Apprenticeship

By Mala

Starting on Monday, 2 August 2010, some friends and myself have opportunity to do apprenticeship for 2 months. This is a compulsory activity from school and will be ended in end of September.

My assignment is to work at Giant Hypermart, Ujung Menteng. I was nervous on my first day. I left home around 7am. My first impression about the workplace was it is a huge place. My friends and I were divided into groups by Ms. Lili. There are 6 work divisions in Giant which are toys, textile, dye, stationery and household. I was assigned to the textile division - clothing.

I was trained to hang clothes properly and neatly. In this textile division, there are some seniors Kak Amel, Kak Icha, Kak Neneng, and Kak Santi. At noon, we had a break in canteen. We exchanged our first experiences, some were happy and some were not so happy with the assignments. Our break was for 1 hour. We returned to work at 1pm.

The seniors were very nice and friendly. At 3.30pm, we went home and would start again the next day at 7.00am. We have to wear uniform as Apprentice, white top, black pants and black socks.

I continued the apprenticeship at Giant on the next day. We had to taking attendance process via computer. We started our day with a morning briefing. The Briefing is more likely to a meeting. Once the briefing was completed, at around 8am, all the staffs, Sales Promotion Girls and all the apprentices start to tidy up all the stocks in each division. The shop opens at 9am. When the shop opens, we could see many customers flew in to shop. They are not only local buyers, but also from overseas and some celebrities.

My daily tasks vary from listing clothes which has no price labels, tidy up clothes, sweep floor, dusting accessories. I also have to stick price labels and fill up some stocks from warehouse to display baskets once the stock is lesser.

If I completed all the preparation tasks, I can only serve customers until the lunch break, 12pm. My lunch break is until 1pm and my working hours finishes at 3.30pm.

Translated by Anita Linggar