UKFast and LPI Celebrate One Year of Platinum Partnership

In September 2019, UKFast became the first company in the UK to become a Platinum Partner of the Linux Professional Institute (LPI). The Manchester-based cloud hosting firm, with more than 400 employees, serves over 5,000 customers ranging from large enterprise clients to sole traders. Training their employees is very important to UKFast management. With a history of significant investment in education, they employ a team of full-time teachers to deliver IT training programs in their purpose-built education centre.

Training talent
20 percent of our workforce is made up of current and former apprentices,” says Aaron Saxton, UKFast Director of Training and Education. This shows the company’s strong commitment to training young talent. But UKFast also places a high priority on continuing education for its staff. The company invests £650 UKP per year in training for each technical employee. Aaron Saxton, himself a former teacher, explains why: “We believe that ‘if you’re not growing you’re dying,’ and if you want to grow as a business, you must invest in your team to help them grow and develop, too. There’s no better way to retain great people than by challenging them and helping them become certified!”

Another example of UKFast’s commitment  to education in Linux and free software is their community education project in the Manchester area. Saxton says, “UKFast works with over 50,000 pupils across more than 50 schools in Greater Manchester and beyond, providing workshops, career and digital masterclasses, work experiences, code clubs, and hands-on technology experience to children from all socio-economic backgrounds. We’ve been proud to support and sponsor specialist LPI Linux masterclasses at a number of schools and colleges. Our efforts at St John Rigby College led to hiring some of their students as apprentices, and the integration of Linux into the school’s computer science curriculum.”

Sharing the same values
That’s why becoming a Platinum Approved Training Partner of the Linux Professional Institute was the obvious choice. “LPI have been a key partner of UKFast for over 6 years, and a key part of developing our team and supporting our community through training and qualifications. LPI shares our values and beliefs when it comes to inspiring the next generation and wave of future-proofed engineers, so it was a no-brainer signing an agreement to take our partnership to the next level,” Saxton explains. “We’re extremely proud of our partnership and status as the only Platinum Partner in the UK.” 

Hopefully an inspiration for others
“We were very pleased to welcome UKFast as a Platinum Partner in the United Kingdom. We have been working with UKFast for years with great confidence and appreciate what they do for Linux and IT education. Their work as Training Partners is more than exemplary and hopefully an inspiration for other companies,” says G. Matthew Rice, Executive Director of Linux Professional Institute.

Interested in a job?
Over 160 technical engineers at UKFast headquarters in Manchester provide support for UKFast infrastructure, customers, and contractors, handing technologies such as Linux, Cloud, Windows, networking, security, DevOps, RnD, backups, and eCommerce. 50 members of the team work in the data centre, supporting the physical hardware and core network at a remote location. If you are interested in a job at UKFast, please visit their Careers web page for an overview of job offers.