Not content with completing a three-year apprenticeship in just two years Ryan Jones had also managed to carve out a specialist role for himself at BT at the age of just 22. Ryan is part of the team responsible for diagnosing and resolving faults on International Private Circuits (IPC’s) at BT’s National Network Management Centre in Oswestry, His job involves liaising with customers and engineers from all over the world to ensure that problems are resolved as quickly as possible.
Ryan said: “Customers pay several thousand pounds a month to IPCs, which have many different uses, including air traffic control, data transfer, videoconferencing and voice calls. It is important to get circuits back up and working, not only for the customer, but also for BT as we pay up to 30 per cent rebates on circuits that are down for more than three hours per month.”
On his own initiative, Ryan has also trained and practised extensively on systems that are not often used by his operational team. As a result, he is now the International Private Circuit Repair Team’s expert on analogue testing systems and is the first point of contact for analogue faults, not only for his colleagues in Oswestry, but also in London, Madrid, the USA and India.
“Ryan has exceeded our expectations, not just in completing his apprenticeship early, but also in his work role,” says Jodie Hayward, apprentice development coach at BT.
“He is already a very important member of the International Circuit Repair Team. He is able to complete all faults and work tasks without supervision and his confidence shines through when he is dealing with customers and engineers on the telephone.”
The company is now providing funding for Ryan to go on to further study, with the aim of him gaining a computer networking degree.
“The Modern Apprenticeship has enabled me to start my climb on the career ladder and put me in a very strong position to progress," says Ryan.
(source: The National Training and Modern Apprenticeship Awards Wales 2007 programme)
