PETER DYKES TRAINING
From health and safety, to knowing how to document, install and maintain networks, training is a strong requirement in telecommunications
volume demand for ribbon fibre technology ingesting into metro, core and access networks links, creating the demand to upskill even the most experienced traditional fibre jointing engineers. On recent courses, engineers with 30 years’ experience commented that this [ribbon cable] is a game changer. Hardened connectorised network technology is being deployed across Europe and globally. FTTx applications never cease to amaze me with demands coming in from industry sectors with applications that need the bandwidth capabilities of fibre.”
is often rushed and isn’t delivered by trained assessors with measured outcomes. Product knowledge is good, training, delivery and assessing competency is different.” He adds, “Although CTTS is vendor independent, we have a long working history with EXFO in the test and measurement, Fujikura for fusion splicing and Prysmian and Commscope for connectivity solutions. Most recently, CTTS has been engaged by Emtelle as their training partner to support their customers in the UK and across Europe. This list isn’t exhaustive, we are constantly engaged to provide training support for new products rollouts “Emerging Methods” and applications. This is often preceded with training the trainer at the manufacturer’s premises resulting in the training programme design.” “From health and safety, to knowing how to document, install and maintain networks, training is a strong requirement in telecommunications,” says Dave Rames, field support team leader at Emtelle. “Our partnership with CTTS is a new chapter for us as we further build on our mission to provide our customers with the most reliable and effective fibre and cabling solutions in the market. The range of training we can now offer will make sure our customers’ staff have the skills necessary to ensure that the solutions they are deploying are utilised to the highest possible standard.” Cook says that the skills that are in demand are across all areas, regardless of the application there are shortages in skilled engineers across a broad range of disciplines, but new ones are coming along all the time. He says, “We are now seeing
CTTS training workshop at ECOC 2019
start-ups with substantial investment and recognise the need for investment in training of new skills for new engineers, applications and our training needs analysis identifies their methodology.” Experienced copper-based network engineers do have an advantage when it comes to retraining for fibre however. Having knowledge of cabling standards, attenuation, decibel, dBm helps with understanding the differing mediums that are integral to fibre networks. So what are the prospects for the future? Will demand for training decline as FTTx rollout continues apace? Cook doesn’t think so. He says, “We are not experiencing particular volume demand from any one country just steady repeated demand for fibre and air blown fibre micro duct network training across Europe. Our presence at ECOC has seen a year on year increased demand for our services. The demand on our services and that for skilled and qualified engineers across Europe is vertical and we do not envisage any slowdown for the next 10 years with the stampede to all homes passed and subscriber grabs!”
The range of people being trained is as diverse as the skills required. Cook says that CTTS is upskilling engineers with redundant skills in the operators work force and skilling new entrants into the sector. He adds, “From our open courses and commercial contracted induction courses we are finding people with a whole variety of different backgrounds that have seen fibre optic technology offering a future career path. CTTS has been engaged to help regions of economic shock where other industries close factories and production plants to reskill workers for the telecoms sector. The communications providers, often referred to as the altnets, have no ready trained workforces to draw from, predominantly are
Jay Tourigny Senior vice president, MicroCare
Germain Lamonde Founder, CEO and group chairman, EXFO
Martyn Cook Group chairman, CTTS Group
Dave Rames Field support team leader, Emtelle
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ISSUE 20 | Q1 2020
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