Virgin Media boosts workforce to cope with broadband and TiVo demand

Virgin Media has announced plans to boost its workforce in order to contend with increased demand for its TiVo and super-fast broadband products.

The 620 recruits, most of whom will be based in Manchester and Swansea, are set to join the cable company over the coming weeks. Some 500 of them will take up customer service positions after undertaking six weeks of extensive training, while the remaining 120 will become engineers as part of Virgin's apprenticeship scheme.

During the apprenticeship period, the new recruits will gain experience on maintaining the safety of Virgin Media's fibre optic network, diagnosing and correcting faults, and installing services.

When they have completed the programme, the newly-qualified engineers will be responsible for the upkeep and rollout of cable TV, home phone and super-fast broadband products.

Paul Buttery, chief customer and networks officer at Virgin Media, said: "The new jobs that we've announced today will ensure we're meeting the increasing demand for our next-generation digital products."

The boost to Virgin Media's engineering arm comes as the company aims to roll out ultra-fast broadband with headline speeds of 100Mbps to all 13 million homes on its network by this spring.