Information Communications Technician L3

This apprenticeship has a duration of 18 months

This occupation is found in organisations, large and small, in all sectors, and within public, private and voluntary organisations. For example, retail, finance, the armed forces and multi-national telecoms providers. Organisations increasingly rely on computer and communications systems in all areas of their operations and decision-making processes. It is therefore crucial to ensure the optimal performance and maintenance of systems. An Information Communication Technician (ICT) is critical to achieving this.

The ICT occupation delivers efficient operation and control of the IT and/or Telecommunications infrastructure (comprising physical or virtual hardware, software, network services and data storage) either on-premises or to end-users provisioned as cloud services. The big picture is to help deliver and support the information systems needs of an organisation.

The ICT helps organisations to prepare for new or changed services. They can operate throughout the change process helping with the maintenance of regulatory, legal, and professional standards in the delivery of systems. They are involved in building and managing systems and components in virtualised and cloud computing environments. A key part of their role is monitoring the performance of systems and services in relation to their contribution to business performance, system security and sustainability.

The work of an ICT can involve a vast array of specialist roles supporting business critical requirements and focus on customer solutions. Networking, Server, IT Essentials, Secure Communications, programming, and databases are just an example of typical tasks and projects undertaken within the likely areas of employment. In their daily work, an employee in this occupation interacts with a wide variety of internal or external users of digital systems, through digital channels, remotely and/or face to face.

An employee in this occupation will be responsible for prioritising systems support tasks as they arise and for monitoring and maintaining system performance. They may work alone or as part of a team but will escalate problems in line with their organisation's policies and Service Level Agreements. For example, if the task may not be completed on premise, it may have to be referred to an external specialist.

There are two distinct options. At the end of the apprenticeship the apprentice will be competent in either:

Support Technician

The Support Technician role is desk based resolving system user queries and resolving faults in a helpdesk environment. For example, a Support Technician in a Travel Agent business would help to ensure the operation of the customer bookings system. When the system fails the business would contact a Support Technician to report the problem and either get it fixed or escalated to an engineer. The Support Technician would be expected to rectify or escalate faults rapidly in order to reduce the financial impact and damage to the business’s customer reputation.

Network Technician

A Network Technician role is usually desk based but may involve visits to client's premises to resolve issues. For example, a Network Technician working in a university or a college they may be installing a computer lab as a training suite including cabling and hardware requirements. They may be required to install cloud services to support a business expansion and provide better network services. In a contact centre environment, they may use network management tools to collect and report on network load and performance statistics to improve commercial outcomes. In a retail bank they may contribute to the implementation of maintenance and installation work using standard procedures and tools to carry out defined system backups, restoring data.

Typical job titles include:

Support Technician - Help Desk support.

First-Line support. Office IT Technician. IT Support Analyst. IT Support Officer. Maintenance Support Technician. Data Centre Support Technician. Cyber/Security support.

Network Technician - Network Support.

IT Field Technician. Cloud Technician Digital Communications Technician, Network Field Operative.

• Develop the skills your business needs
• Get qualified and motivated staff
• Future proof your business
• Professional qualifications for your staff

• Gaining industry recognised professional qualifications
• Developing skills that will increase your career potential
• Industry Support from industry experienced staff working with the British Computing Society
• Working with the British Computing Society
• Becoming a BCS member (students only)

Individual employers will set the selection criteria for enrolment onto the Apprenticeship, but this is likely to include five GCSEs, (especially English, Mathematics and a Science or Technology subject); a relevant Level 2 Apprenticeship; other relevant qualifications and experience; or an aptitude test with a focus on IT skills.

• Communications
• IT security
• Remote infrastructure
• Data
• Problem solving
• Work-flow management
• Health and safety
• The Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment directive