Giganet opens new full fibre training centre in Whiteley

Published by

Stephen Emerson

Giganet has opened a new training centre in Whiteley

Internet Service Provider Giganet has opened its full fibre Training Centre in Whiteley.

The new centre has a fully recreated home installation environment and the new development is part of a strategy that places an emphasis on the ongoing staff training.

Giganet is expanding its Fibre to the Premises (FTTP) broadband across the UK with a focus on poorly-served parts of the country including those in Hampshire, Dorset, Wiltshire and West Sussex.

Jarlath Finnegan, Giganet CEO, said “To create a dedicated space to train people in our business is invaluable. Our mission is to become the Best ISP in the UK, and to do that we have to be utterly confident that we’re providing the best service possible. The Training Centre is essential to our apprenticeship program and future hiring plans to give our staff a comprehensive understanding of the equipment we’re installing and the gigabit capability it provides - helping every employee, regardless of department or role, to understand the business and customer better.”

Backed by a £250m funding from Fern Trading, Giganet has grown considerably within the past year.

In the space of 10 months, the workforce has expanded from 25 to 139 employees, with hiring plans that will take Giganet up to 200 staff members by the end of 2022.

With the upcoming launch of its apprentice program, Giganet will be recruiting ongoing engineers over the next few years.

Starting in July, Giganet will recruit, train and equip their own engineers, who will then be able to work in their local area connecting homes and businesses in their community to full fibre broadband with the new Whiteley training centre playing a key role.

The Giganet Training centre will provide new and existing staff from all areas of the business with opportunities to learn what their technicians and engineers are doing on live sites.

For Giganet’s customer-facing departments, the hands-on training will help better understand the customer’s journey to full fibre, in particular their dedicated customer service and provisioning teams.

Taking advantage of the space created from expanding into newer offices, the building has been split into two.

Staff will be able to learn in a replica of the working environment, without any impact on a live customer. With the space designed to emulate the real network in the outside world, the facility helps non-engineering minds to experience a typical working scenario - from laying cables to making repairs, working at ground-level or overhead, and installing supercharged internet services inside customers’ homes. Upstairs, the premises have been converted too, with breakout learning areas and video conferencing facilities across two dedicated training rooms.

Stephen Emerson

Stephen Emerson is the Managing Editor of The Business Magazine and is responsible for the publication's print publications and online properties including the newly launched Biz News websites in Hampshire and Dorset. Stephen has been a journalist for 20 years and has worked at local, regional and national publications and led a team which made The Scotsman website one of the fastest growing news sites in the UK with over eight million monthly users. He has a keen interest in technology, property and corporate finance and telling the stories of the people behind the successful firms in these sectors.