• 250 apprentice engineers graduate into full-time jobs with Virgin Media
  • More opportunities to be announced following record applications
  • Graduates told to aim for the top

Virgin Media has employed a record 250 graduates from the latest intake of its rapidly growing apprenticeship scheme and announced it will be looking for even more young people to join this summer.

Apprentices from across the UK have now completed twelve months of paid training with the broadband, TV, mobile and home phone company, celebrating their graduation as a glamorous ceremony on Thursday.

Virgin Media has been consistently expanding its apprenticeship scheme with a record number of graduates in 2012 - five-times the number that graduated in the first year of the scheme in 2008.

Chris Starling, head of apprenticeships for Virgin Media said: "Demand for our engineer apprenticeship scheme is going from strength to strength. The number of applications has doubled each year since 2008 with 50 applicants for every place we create.

"We are thrilled to be offering apprenticeships to switched-on youngsters across the UK. It's a fantastic opportunity for us to invest in the future of our business as well as the communities we serve by offering young people a great start to their career and help them help us deliver award-winning internet, entertainment and phone services."

The new graduates have a shining example of the potential opportunities ahead of them, in Paul Buttery, Virgin Media's chief customer, technology and networks officer, who started his career as a telecoms apprentice. He added: "Apprenticeships offer enthusiastic young workers a superb insight into our business and are an excellent gateway to stimulating and prosperous carriers. The fact that many people like myself started as apprentices in the telecommunications industry shows the importance of these schemes and just how far our graduates can go."

Councillor James McKay Harborne ward (Birmingham), Cabinet Member for a Green, Safe and Smart City said: "I'd like to congratulate all of this year's graduates and wish them the best of luck with their careers in the technology sector. If we are to build smarter, more technologically advanced cities, we should recognise the importance of these types of apprenticeship initiatives, not just in creating jobs, but for supporting the growth of a technological skills base within these cities."

Virgin Media's apprenticeship scheme provides young people with the opportunity to earn while they learn and achieve the nationally recognised NVQ in Communication Technology. The qualification offers a mix of both technical and customer engagement skills with apprentices learning how to install and service Virgin Media's super-fast broadband, phones and pioneering on-demand TV service TiVo®.

More than 700 budding apprentices have joined and graduated from Virgin Media's scheme since 2008 and are now responsible for installing and servicing the introduction of Virgin Media's ultrafast 120Mb broadband and revolutionary TiVo offering.

With over half of all UK homes able to access Virgin Media's cutting edge digital entertainment services there are numerous opportunities for those ambitious enough to progress quickly within the company.

For further details and information on how to apply for an apprenticeship please visit http://careers.virginmedia.com/apprenticeship/.

Recent graduates:

Ryan Whitten, 23, from Birmingham, said: "I was training up to be a supervisor at the shop I was at but could only have gone so far. The apprenticeship appealed as I'm out and about meeting more people, installing broadband and TiVo or solving problems. And there are good prospects of moving up through the business."

Mobosir Ali, 25, from Greater Manchester, said: "The scheme gives you lots of skills: communications, working on your own, working with a team, self-management, dealing with customers and learning to explain and provide solutions to any issues.

"It made me more independent and gave me targets to work towards. It's a challenge but there is always someone there to give you a hand. I'm quite practical any way. I've worked in quite a few environments and I'm not suited to sitting in an office watching a clock."

Ryan Flintoft, 22, from Gateshead, said:

"I've recommended the apprenticeship to all the younger lads in my community. Some of the lads are 17 and to walk into a job where they get this much training on this wage and all this spent on them with a van and tools, I don't think you can get it anywhere else."


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e: pressoffice@virginmedia.co.uk

Virgin Media is the first provider of all four broadband, TV, mobile phone and home phone services in the UK.

The company's cable network - the result of a multi-billion pound private investment - delivers ultrafast broadband connections to over half of all UK homes, with speeds of up to 100Mb, and is being expanded to reach thousands more people across the country.

Virgin Media has developed the most advanced interactive television service, bringing together broadcast TV, thousands of hours of on demand programming and the best of the web in a single set-top box powered by TiVo. The company was the first to offer HD TV and 3D on demand to millions of UK households.

Virgin Media also operates the most popular virtual mobile network in the UK which, when launched, was the world's first such mobile phone service. It is also one of the largest fixed-line home phone providers in the country.

Virgin Media Inc. is listed on the NASDAQ Stock Market and the London Stock Exchange (VMED).

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