apprenticeships
Awareness
Equinix now provides three separate
training opportunities for those wishing
to become an Equinix apprentice.
for UK apprentices to become
Certified Data Centre Technicians. We
now provide three separate training
opportunities for those wishing to
become an Equinix apprentice.
These include an Electro-Technical
apprenticeship, a Mature Student
apprenticeship in the Facilities
Team and a Customer Operations
apprenticeship in the Operations Team.
However, the first challenge is: how
many teenagers know what a data
centre is? The next generation of
school students need to, and will,
become aware of the importance
of data centres. This is actually
something that we are looking to
encourage by setting up a schools
programme. The plan is to start by
inviting a few local secondary schools
in Slough to visit our data centres
and hear from the people that work
here, particularly our apprentices. It
is important that we inspire the next
generation so we will talk to them
about what data centres enable in
order to make it more relevant to
them. For instance, every App on their
smartphones needs a data storage
system behind it in order for it to run!
It is hoped that by engaging
children at a younger age, there
will be a greater demand for
apprenticeships within data centres.
Hiring apprentices provides young
people with excellent opportunities
and allows companies to train people
in a specific way whilst increasing
employee loyalty. In the modern job
market it is vital to invest in your staff
and their development. Businesses
that clearly value their staff are only
going to prosper.
Apprenticeships are also important
as they offer an alternative route into
employment. Higher education is not
always feasible or the right path for
everyone. Apprenticeships offer the
opportunity to become engrossed
and au fait with a business, providing
training and transferable skills for the
broader industry. It is an important
avenue to a career and for that
reason, we are looking beyond the
UK and Germany to see where else
we can roll out the programme within
the Equinix network.
Training in this way also provides a
broad basis and insight into different
roles within a business. We can
then, where possible, support people
who want to move across roles. For
example, many of our IT team members
started as data centre technicians.
Another way to support staff
development and knowledge
sharing is to move them around the
business in terms of location. This
system is dependent on the scale
of the operation, it is of course not
something that every company can
offer. However, where possible, it is
beneficial. Our Global Mobility team
looks at how we can move our people
around other countries and parts of
the business. Transfers offer a great
experience for employees but we
also benefit as the exercise allows
geographies to share best practices.
The technology industry needs to find a way
to engage women, to inspire them to look
into the opportunities that we can provide.
Stimulating change
An area which must be addressed
by the industry is the lack of women,
a challenge faced across Science,
Technology, Engineering and
Mathematics (STEM) industries. The
technology industry needs to find a
way to engage women, to inspire
them to look into the opportunities
that we can provide. In order to
stimulate this change, the most
important audience to reach is female
students, encouraging them onto
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