Kelly Group is proud to have worked with Virgin Media and its constituent companies since 1985. The Group was awarded the new Build Evolution contract in 2020 to support Virgin Media as one of their national partners who provides planning, expansion, and maintenance services for their next-generation gigabit fibre network. Since then, our teams have been working on ground-breaking solutions, pioneering the way within our industry with a new 8mm micro duct infrastructure, building a more reliable and faster network for Virgin Media customers to enjoy.
Kelly Group’s fibre engineers play a vital role in the network build and installation process. The team ran an 8km long cable from a VHUB (exchange) through mid-points (joints) to set up a live connection to the POP A cabinet which is responsible for serving up to 753 homes around the local area at Chelmsford. This ‘mother’ cabinet connects to either telecoms poles, underground chambers or a smaller cabinet which serves the local 8mm duct infrastructure and finally ends at the customer’s home. The Group’s skilled fibre engineers splice fibre inside the POP A box to create live connections from that point.
Oscar Said:
“I started working for Kelly Group two years ago as a subduct puller, and I was delighted when the opportunity became available to train as an FTTP engineer. My training journey was a little different to others as I was trained in the field by one of my colleagues. The technology we work with is a little different to an FTTP installation engineer working on the Virgin Media contract. When I initially joined the business, I completed a two-week training course on rod and roping and pulling cables. However, my training experience as an FTTP engineer was extremely positive. I learned a lot from fellow engineers and continue to learn new things every day. We have an excellent support system, we are a small team of engineers - if any of us need help, we’re always there to support each other.
I start my day by checking updates sent by our office staff such as prioritising a job amongst our schedules. Then I make my way to the first job of the day. I could be completing a variety of tasks from our job pack including, working on a POP A cabinet, a local fibre cabinet, climbing poles, underground or working on MDUs. We tend to focus on cabinet work at the beginning of the week, once those jobs are completed, we focus on building the network to the closest point to local homes ensuring they have access to it once the connection goes live. We don’t complete customer installations at the moment, as we’re focusing on the network build.
Every day brings a challenge and I learn something new. The variety of locations and tasks makes me genuinely enjoy the role.
In the beginning, I was a little scared of the knowledge that the job requires and afraid of making mistakes. Mistakes happen, and I try to learn from them - the best way to expand my knowledge and gain more experience is by working in the field and practising a lot. The more time I spend working with fibre the more I learn about resolving issues and ensuring the network we build will benefit the local community.
I’ve gained experience, knowledge, and a sustainable career at Kelly Group. I didn’t have any experience within the industry when I joined, and I learned everything while working for the business with the help of my management team and colleagues.
I like my team as we have a close relationship and we’re all friends.”
Kelly Group has multiple career opportunities throughout the UK. We are always searching for talented individuals to represent our brand.
For more information, please call the Kelly Recruitment team on 02037583058.
Alternatively, you can view current vacancies by visiting our careers page.
