Ensuring apprenticeships can continue during the current pandemic in a COVID-secure way is critically important for young peoples’ future.
With that aim, the UK government is encouraging training providers to deliver training to apprentices remotely and via e-learning as far as is practicable.
PTT is already supporting the successful delivery of digital apprenticeships for companies in the ICT sector with our online courses and remote assessment tools.
We can support the delivery of apprenticeship that conform to standards such as Unified Communications Technician and Network Engineer.
We would welcome the opportunity to discuss with you how we can assist in adapting your apprenticeships for remote learning and assessment. Contact us here >>

The introduction of optical fibre cables in the 1980s revolutionised communications. It could be argued that the installation of the TAT-8 transatlantic optical cable directly contributed to the birth of the world wide web and the exponential growth of the Internet.

In 1989, IBM funded a dedicated circuit between Cornell University and the European research centre CERN which used what was then regarded as the high capacity of TAT-8. This provided Tim Berners-Lee with a direct connection to the NSFnet, the forerunner of the public Internet, allowing him to demonstrate his invention, the world wide web.

PTT has just released two updated courses covering the principles and operation of protocols initially developed for NSFnet and which now drive most communications systems. These courses are “Internet protocols” and “IP networks“.

Google has announced plans to build a new submarine cable linking the USA, UK and Spain. The UK cable station will be located at Bude in Cornwall. The “Grace Hopper” cable will be the fourth Google owned cable accelerating the trend for content providers such as Facebook, Amazon and Microsoft to invest in their own infrastructure rather than relying on telecommunications companies for connections between their data centres and users.

The network of undersea cables that span the oceans are vital for global communications carrying 99% of the world’s data. The first transatlantic cable to use optical fibre as the transmission media, TAT-8, was laid in 1988 with a capacity of 280 Megabits per second. The “Grace Hopper” cable, which promises 250 Terabits per second speeds, adds to the nearly 750,000 miles of cable connecting continents to support our insatiable demand for communications and entertainment.

PTT courses that cover optical fibre communications include “Optical fibre principles“, “Optical access networks“, “Optical line systems” and “Optical networks”.