Rural community provider County Broadband is marking National Apprenticeship Week (NAW) 2023 (6-12 February) by highlighting the incredible impact of their apprentices – including an American former lifeguard who has found her “dream” role with a data analytics apprenticeship.
County Broadband, an alternative network (alt-net) provider based in Aldham, near Colchester , is committed to designing, building and deploying full-fibre broadband infrastructure to half a million premises in rural and hard-to-reach communities across the East of England by 2027 after securing a combined £146 million of private investment from Aviva Investors.
Full-fibre infrastructure provides gigabit speeds (up to 1,000 Mbps) and superior network reliability.
The local company has enjoyed exponential growth in recent years, rising from around a dozen employees in 2018 to over 200 at present to support its full-fibre rollout and ambitious growth plans. County Broadband is an Apprenticeship Levy payer and currently has three apprentices.
Elisa Ricketts, originally from Vancouver, Washington, USA, is studying towards a Level 4 Data Analyst Apprenticeship. With a diverse background, she started the programme in September 2022.
“It has been a wonderful experience, as well as a fantastic opportunity for me. I think anyone wanting to achieve a dream should take this on as it has been worth it so far,” Elisa said.
Her family’s Air Forces background meant extensive travel around the USA and Europe. Elisa worked as a lifeguard at a swimming pool in Vancouver for six years and later as a Boy Scout camp wrangler – working with horses – as well as assistant roles in retail, administrative and catering.
Elisa, aged 38, who now lives in Rickinghall, Suffolk, explained: “I did this until I ended up in England where I worked in Customer Services for six years as this was the only work I could find.
“I searched inside myself to find out what career I wished to do in my new country, as I had bigger expectations. It was never my dream job. I finally realised that I wanted to work with data, just before the Covid pandemic. I was getting my training lined up but it fell through unfortunately.”
Elisa first joined County Broadband as a Customer Service Connections Agent in November 2020. She expressed her desire to work within data analytics and became a data administrator in April 2022. She was soon enrolled onto her 18-month apprenticeship programme and hasn’t looked back.
“What brought me to County Broadband was one of my friends who joined them, and it was all he could talk about. So when that first position opened, I looked them up and also fell in love with County Broadband’s ethos,” she said.
Elisa was promoted last month (January 2023) to the position of junior data quality analyst, based in County Broadband’s Business Information Systems & Technology team.
Data analysts provide insights, such as customer or market data, to key internal stakeholders to help improve overall business analysis and decision-making.
Speaking about her 14-month apprenticeship, she added: “I really wanted to learn all there was to learn to be a data analyst. However, university education for me would be expensive but I wanted something to prove that I had this knowledge.
“Taking on the apprenticeship gave me the best of both worlds: I can work and learn at the same time. Once I learn something, I’m then able to apply it to my everyday tasks and ingrain it into my head. And not only do I learn the technical side of the role, but also the personal and professional side, to make me a well-rounded data analyst – something I would have not learned elsewhere.
“So far, I’ve been learning about the history of data, databases, and the data life cycle along with the basics. This will help me understand the fundamentals and build reports that the company needs.”
Edward Ring, training manager at County Broadband, said apprenticeships have now become “established, viable and desirable” qualifications for people of all ages and backgrounds.
He said: “Elisa is a perfect example of someone using their varied background and skills to launch a new career via the apprenticeship route – showcasing it’s not just ideal for local school or college leavers, but also for experienced individuals with a diverse background seeking a new challenge.
“All our apprentices are brilliant and have had an incredible impact at County Broadband. Not everyone is meant, or is able, to go to university and enter that type of academic environment, but apprenticeships provide invaluable experiences for future leaders and allows a whole range of people to get out there, gain new skills, and really achieve something – while getting paid too.”
County Broadband is currently recruiting for over 20 positions, ranging from engineers and finance roles, to helping to design and project manage the company’s full-fibre rollout.
Full-fibre broadband is based on fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) infrastructure, where fibre optic cables are installed directly into the premise to provide download and uploads speeds up to 1,000 Mbps. These can be upgraded to over 10,000 Mbps in the future. Network reliability is also considered the ‘gold standard’ due to the fibre optic technology and dedicated connections in individual premises.
Full-fibre is replacing Victorian fibre-to-the-cabinet (FTTC) copper networks responsible for historically slow and unreliable ‘superfast’ broadband. Full-fibre speeds are 11 times faster than existing ‘Superfast’ networks which the government has confirmed are no longer fit for purpose.
County Broadband, founded in 2003, specialises in connecting rural areas which have been typically overlooked by other providers in the past.
Residents and local businesses are encouraged to find out if they are included in County Broadband’s full-fibre rollout plans by using their online postcode checker at www.countybroadband.co.uk
