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In response, Andy established the Cellular Network Field Engineer( CNFE) apprenticeship programme to get younger people into the industry.
“ Frighteningly, no formal apprenticeship schemes have been put in place to safeguard our workforce from a field perspective,” Andy says.“ The cellular industry has been running for nearly 40 years, going back pre-2G days, all the way to the 5G evolution. This is a nearly-40-year time period and you’ d never think the first mobile phones call was made in January 1985.”
The programme took five years to establish through collaboration with government and industry partners. As of 2025, it has 15 apprentices enrolled – a feat that Andy is extremely proud of.
“ We’ re really pleased that this year now we have roughly 15 apprentices enrolled,” he says.“ That’ s 15 young, talented people coming into what is a really fast moving, vibrant industry and a well-paying industry. When you think about the logic, we have this really fast evolving industry that pays extremely well and we don’ t have enough engineers.”
CNFE is also designed to confront the evolving skill requirements of the technology industry, as 4G and 5G
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