Manx Telecom has received a ringing endorsement from the Isle of Man’s Trade and Industry Minister for promoting home grown talent in its quest to safeguard the company’s future skills requirements.

Mindful of the relentless pace of technological development in the telecoms industry, the phone operator has announced it's offering high level technical engineering apprenticeships to two Manxmen, Luke Rowe and Gareth Whorrall.

The pair will be involved in engineering projects within Manx Telecom’s core network team that look after the bulk of services available to the company’s domestic and corporate customer base. This includes all fixed line, broadband and mobile operations, as well as the high performance MPLS circuits which handle Manx Telecom’s off-Island connectivity.

It will take Luke and Gareth up to three years to become fully qualified technical engineers and part of their training will involve attending specialist Cisco and Microsoft training courses in the UK and at the Isle of Man College.

The apprenticeship programme has been warmly welcomed by Trade and Industry Minister David Cretney.

He said: ‘Manx Telecom’s technical engineering apprenticeship scheme not only represents an excellent career development opportunity for its participants, but also reinforces the Isle of Man’s commitment to diversifying the economy in to areas like e-business’.

‘I am encouraged the company has clearly recognised the potential for home grown talent to fulfil its future skill requirements, which will help to service the growth we are experiencing in e-sectors such as e-gaming,’ he added.