Speaker: Nick Mellors, Founder, Innovation Nottinghamshire
Tell us about your job and what it involves
Nick Mellors: Hi, my name is Nick Mellors. I'm the founder of Innovation Nottinghamshire. I'm also a commercial consultant specialising in bidding and tender work. And that's how I got involved in 5G through the 5G Connected Forest project that we had up here in Nottinghamshire.
How did you get there – what’s your career journey been so far?
Nick Mellors: I've actually never been part of the telecoms industry. It's not a sector I particularly worked in. But back in 2019, I got the opportunity to work with Nottinghamshire County Council bidding for funding for, as I said before, the 5G Connected Forest project. And while I was working on that, I suddenly realised what the power of 5G was going be and all the awesome stuff that it could deliver. And so I got really excited by it. And that led me to create Innovation Nottinghamshire, which amongst other things has created the UK's first 5G careers program which I've now worked with something over 1,500 students across the county sharing with them the opportunities that 5G brings not just to become telecoms engineers, but to use the power of this and to commission it wherever, whatever sector you're interested in.
What do you enjoy most about your job / the sector?
Nick Mellors: I I think without a doubt, the most enjoyable part of my last couple of years involved in this has been doing the 5G careers program. I've had the privilege of working with something like 1,500 young people who have all learned about what this stuff called digital connectivity, called 5G, really means and what a difference it is making. So that doesn't matter whether you're looking at a career in the creative sector or manufacturing or health care or logistics, all of these sectors are changing because of technology, because of digital connectivity, because of the power of 5G. And it's been brilliant fun. It's been really insightful to see how our young people particularly are grasping these opportunities and saying actually, we can make a real difference. And I think that's also part of the message that is now coming through to people who are thinking, well, maybe I'm interested in the tech of this, maybe I'm interested in the telecoms side of it. You're not just going to be a telecoms engineer, you're gonna be the person that enables someone's Nana to stay at home for longer. And I think that's a really brilliant opportunity.
What would you like people to know about working in telecoms and connectivity?
Nick Mellors: I think we are at a point where a career in telecoms is just such a brilliant opportunity at the moment. Two thirds, almost two thirds of UK telecoms engineers will be retiring in the next 10 to 15 years. At the same time in the next five years, we are looking to provide high speed gigabit broadband to 30 million more premises in the UK. In the 20% of what they call the hardest to reach areas. So this isn't the easy bits like in a town centre. These are in our rural communities. These are in our former post industrial communities that have been left behind. And the population in 2025, a quarter of the working population will be aged under 30. So for those people entering the world of work now and in the next couple of years, there's a huge opportunity, there's a huge gap because just as we're losing all that experience and all those telecoms engineers, we have the highest possible demand for those skills. So I personally think we'll see lots of career opportunities, lots of job progression, frankly, very decent salaries because there will be competition for your talent.
