IT Support Technician Apprentice

**Employer description:**

The Company [Blaze Networks] are a security-focused Managed Services Provider and ISP, delivering network communications and IT services to businesses across the UK.

They are fundamentally a customer and service-focused organisation, dedicated to ensuring their customers’ networks and IT systems are highly dependable, secure & cost effective.

They offer their customers complete IT solutions ranging from setting up printers and supporting windows to building corporate networks.

**Overview**:
They have an opportunity for 2 Apprentice IT Support Technicians.

**The Role**:
There are two main functions to your role as an Apprentice IT Support Technician:

- Working on the IT Service Desk to support the 1st line team with ticket categorisation, prioritisation and answering the phone to log issues and request along with actioning service requests.
- In addition to this, you will be part of a team that heads broadband troubleshooting across multiple carriers. This is a proactive role in which you will be required to use the companies monitoring platform to identify issues, working with the customerand carriers to resolve.
- You will be working with a multitude of technologies, including but not limited to Microsoft Windows, Cisco routers and switches, FortiGate firewalls as well as a selection of in-house bespoke systems, for which you will receive on the job training.
- You will be working within an ITIL framework, to deliver a fantastic service to customers, meet internal and external SLA’s set out by our contracts, follow escalation paths, working with a selection of third parties and supporting other areas of the business.

**Main responsibilities**:

- Politely and professionally answering in bound calls to the service desk.
- Logging tickets to the clearly defined internal standard
- Categorising issues by severity
- Working through your own ticket queue, and organising work based on SLA
- Following internal processes and procedures to deliver the service we promise
- Contribute towards in-house documentation
- Proactively troubleshoot broadband and leased line issues utilising our monitoring system
- Ensuring that customer satisfaction is always upheld
- Following escalation paths

**What we are looking for**:
**Desirable skills**:
Where we do not ask for or expect a vast knowledge of IT due to the nature of the position, there are a few prerequisites that we require you to satisfy in order to be considered:

- A basic understanding of using and troubleshooting Microsoft Windows - e.g. Installing software, setting up user accounts, connecting the device to a network., resolving common issues, setting up outlook profiles etc.
- A basic understanding of how the internet works and manipulating network settings from within windows e.g. Knowing what is required to connect to the internet, settings static IP addresses
- Experience in resolving IT based issues be it issues with your home internet, personal laptop or installing printers for friends and family.
- Hardware knowledge - you should be able to identify all internal components of a computer or laptops and should be comfortable replacing parts.
- It is imperative that you are comfortable using the Microsoft office suite consisting of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook
- An understanding of why security is so important in this sector and some ideas on how to implement it.

**Personal qualities**:

- Able to work in a high-pressure environment
- Able to stay calm when faced with difficult phone calls
- Be able to work as part of a team as well as alone on tickets and projects
- Have fantastic communication skills, written and verbal
- Able to complete routine and non-routine tasks
- Be able to plan and organize both familiar and new tasks
- Logical, pro-active and have an analytical approach to your work
- Have strong attention to detail

**Entry requirements**:
The entry requirements for this Azure Cloud Support Specialist programme are as follows:

- GCSE Maths and English (or equivalents) at grades 3+ (D or above)

You may also have a combination of qualifications and experience which demonstrate the minimum foundation needed for the programme. In this instance you could still be considered for the programme.

**Find out more here:**
- Plus, an A-Level in ICT (or equivalent) would be an advantage

**Working week**:
Monday - Friday (37.5hrs a week) between 8:00am - 6:00pm.

**Future prospects**:
Many of the companies’ former apprentices have gone on to forge success careers within the company on successful completion of their apprenticeship.

You will also be given the opportunity on successful completion of your apprenticeship to become a fulltime permanent member of the company with a promotion including:

- A new job title
- More responsibilities
- An enhanced pay and benefits package
- As well as further investment in your ongoing training and development

**Important Information**:
QA’s apprenticeships are funded by the Education & Skills Funding Agency (ESFA), an executive agency of the Department for Education.

To be eligible for a Government funded apprenticeship you must have lived in the UK or European Economic Area (EEA) for the last 3 consecutive years.