The challenge
Virgin Media O2 is one of the UK’s leading telecommunications providers. Its Radio Engineers were responsible for configuring engineering pipelines and processes across the network, but the team had become increasingly reliant on external contractors to carry out this work.
This reliance was creating cost and capability risk. VMO2 wanted to bring the work in-house by building the Python and automation scripting skills its own engineers needed to move from manual network processes towards automated ones.
They were experiencing:
- Overreliance on external contractors for configuring engineering pipelines and processes
- Limited in-house Python and automation scripting capability among Radio Engineers
- Manual, time-intensive processes with no clear internal pathway to automation
- A need to build capability against VMO2’s own tooling, including its P.I.Works platform
Our solution
We designed a two-tier programme that took engineers from Python fundamentals through to building real automation solutions, developed and signed off in close collaboration with VMO2’s subject matter experts.
Introduction course
- Two half-day sessions, delivered to 50 trainees across five cohorts of 10
- Starting with core Python principles, before applying them directly to the VMO2 environment, laying the groundwork for automation platforms such as P.I.Works
Advanced Deep-Dive
- A 10-day programme for 15 trainees, progressing from Python fundamentals to object-oriented programming, REST API integration and relational databases
- Structured across four parts: Advanced Python, APIs & Data, Databases, and Practice to Project
- “Practice to Project”: trainees built a working prototype replicating real VMO2 processes that they were working with on a daily basis, with agile-style elements including client involvement in sprint retrospectives and final presentation feedback
Delivery was genuinely collaborative. VMO2 subject matter experts and managers were involved from initial scoping conversations through to a shared sign-off process for exercise briefs, live briefing of trainees on the final project scope, one-to-one check-ins during the project, and attendance at final presentations.
The results
- 50 trainees completed the Introduction course
- 15 trainees completed the Advanced Deep-Dive
- Trainees delivered final projects building time-saving automation processes, saving hours of work per week
- A more self-sufficient engineering culture, with VMO2 engineers now able to write and maintain their own automation scripts against real operational tooling
- A repeatable Introduction to Advanced skills pathway, built with reusable, signed-off exemplar projects, designed to run again for future cohorts
Learn more about Upskilling
This is what our Upskilling programmes are built to do. Rather than generic courses, we design training around an organisation’s own data, tools and everyday workflows, so people leave with skills they can put to use immediately, not just a certificate. It’s an approach that works just as well for regulated, data-sensitive environments like the NHS as it does for fast-moving commercial teams, because the content is always shaped around the real work people do.
