Training is too often viewed by company Senior Managers and owners with trepidation and tends to come well down the list in competing voices for scarce capital investment.  It’s completely understandable – Engineers are in hot demand and training is seen as non-productive time spent coupled with the risk that the employee could leave or raise expectations of a higher salary. Training doesn’t necessarily pay back the investment immediately and then there are other hidden costs – accommodation, travel & expenses.  Besides which, if needed specialists can be contracted in to fill the gaps, can’t they? This is the glass half empty mentality!

We live in an age where technology moves fast and those that can harness and apply it reap the big rewards. Competition is everywhere and those whose livelihood is offering a service need to ensure that they have the best people….but unless you have undertaken work for a prospective customer, how can they be sure your people are competent. How can you win their trust and win new business beyond a race to the bottom on price? A big part of the answer is for directly employed staff to have up to date, relevant and widely recognised vocational qualifications, not just college degrees or job experience.

Large global corporations are the ones spending the most on their IT infrastructure. They are not just looking for partners to install their infrastructure. They appreciate and fully expect to be advised by partners who can help them to make informed choices. The only way they can have complete assurance that their partners know what they are doing is to have proof though recognised certification. Two such organisations that facilitate training and certification for physical layer design & installation are City & Guilds and BICSI.  Another organisation that enables top-up skills is CPD.  These are the organisations that Networks Centre has chosen to partner with.

If anyone needed more convincing; to use an analogy nobody would buy a PC or tablet and not install any Apps/programmes?  That would be short-sighted and you would only get a fraction of the potential value from your investment.  You might be able to buy access to a special programme for occasional use but it doesn’t work like that with people. Those with specialist skills don’t sit on the shelf waiting to be hired. They are busy and the odds of someone being available when you need them are slim. This is why it makes perfect sense to extensively train your valued staff with additional or top up skills. Networks Centre, as an established UK agent for City & Guilds and BICSI, are offering training courses that cover the full range of requirements for the physical layer infrastructure industry. This includes the following: