In the 1960s just 6% of under-21s went to university compared to 43% in 2008. With nearly 263,000 first class honours degrees being handed out in 2007, high end graduate positions are now few and far between. One thing is for certain though. Whether you opt for the academic route or upon leaving school or college head straight to the coal face to learn your trade, hard work and dedication is the only assured way to succeed.
One person who has demonstrated this is Paul Cadman of Digital Exchange. Paul left Norton College after just one year having finished his GCSEs at Birley Secondary school at 16. Like so many young people today he was undecided on a career and had no interest in remaining in education. Paul instead sent out a number of speculative letters to would be employers and was invited to an interview at Irwin Mitchell Solicitors. It was there that Paul first learnt about the telecommunications industry helping support the BT system that Irwin Mitchell then relied upon for its call centre. Paul’s ability and enthusiasm didn’t go unnoticed and after just three years he was approached by a specialist communication company in Sheffield where Paul worked as a field engineer for four years.
In 2004 Paul looked for his next step up the ladder. It was then he applied for an engineer’s position at Digital Exchange, a converged technologies specialist. Digital invested heavily in Paul’s advancement through specialist training and as a result Paul was considered one of the most capable Samsung telephony engineers in the country. Paul’s ability and technical understanding gained him an internal promotion to Project Manager and he has recently been promoted again to Operations Manager. Neville Wilkinson, Digital Exchange’s Technical Director commented “Paul has always been an ambitious individual ever since joining Digital. It’s great that we have been able to reward his devotion and loyalty not only to us as a company but to our customers too. Paul’s new role more accurately reflects his position within the company in that his commitment and drive will help Digital Exchange achieve new levels of success.”