Mohammed Abdul-Ali, 29, is a senior security provisioning engineer with Virgin Media
This is in fact Mohammed’s third apprenticeship with Virgin Media! It’s a way of learning while earning that he has found works well for him and has enabled him to progress his career in the telecoms industry.
His current apprenticeship is allowing Mohammed to work toward a BSc honours degree in digital technology solutions. He said: “Aston University, where I study, have been very supportive which has been a huge help as I have been out of full-time education for a little while and the adjustment to this level of learning has probably been my biggest challenge.”
Day-to-day, Mohammed works with Virgin Media’s business customers, which means he generally keeps normal office hours, but this can sometimes change including occasionally working from home. As a provisioning engineer, he installs services remotely to ensure customers stay connected. He said: “My work requires me to be pin-point accurate in my delivery as it can have far-reaching consequences if I get it wrong.”
So far, his proudest apprenticeship moment was probably being awarded the ITP Christopher Mills Award. The award celebrates apprentices who demonstrate a great use of ICT or maths over and above what is expected.
Of his future career, Mohammed said he’s “aiming for his next step to becoming a principal engineer, but my longer-term ambition is to become a technical manager and move on to becoming a director”.
Visit virg.in/futurecareers to find out more about apprenticeships at Virgin Media
