Apprentice Field Technician Review

Working as an apprentice field technician which involves mostly service work with occasional install on the CATV and telephony network that Virgin Media operates. Download my jobs onto a PDA every morning and away I go, van, tools and training all supplied.

Developed customer service skills as the job is customer facing, learned a lot of technical side of things and hands on.

Decent company to work for, enjoy the job as no day is the same. Can sometimes be challenging but there's always help from team mates, managers,etc.

Monthly meetings with managers who go in depth as to how well your doing, if you value the company and the job, Virgin values you in return.

Online submissions complete the qualification side of things, first 6 months we had a study day every week to complete SVQ and training, as we progressed to do the job ourselves the study days went down to fortnightly meetings. Study days break up the working week and help get the qualification side of things done.

13 weeks buddied with another technician, followed by 2 weeks installation/service training then its out on your own on staged quota (25% 50% 75% 100% work). At study day location there's full working network so if we're unsure of things or need further training it can be replicated in a training environment.

Managers and team mates always helpful, if there's any struggle out in the field or on the SVQ side of things there's always someone on the other side of the phone to offer advice.

Van and fuel are all paid for which is a bonus as travel to and from work won't cost anything. Wage increase half way through scheme if performing well in the field and 50% SVQ completed.

Often nights outs arranged, Virgin offers occasionally to volunteer on any of their projects such as V Festival,etc.

Yes

Would recommend it for anyone seeking a career in the telecommunications or IT sector and enjoys working independently, competitive salary once qualified and staff benefits for those in cabled areas.

Be well prepared for assessment day if invited, they're looking for people who have actually prepared for it rather than last minute stuff. After you've passed a telephone interview, the assessment day involves interview, practical, numeracy test, presentation, so make sure you've researched a bit about VM before thinking about applying or accepting an invite to assessment.