"The UKTA is an internationally recognised centre of excellence in the provision of ICT education globally"

About Us

For over two decades, the UKTA has helped telecommunications professionals to improve their skills, advance their careers and build their networks. We are run by enthusiastic volunteers from across the globe who share a passion for ensuring that individuals from all countries can access skills, tra ining and qualifications. We are an independent organisation. Rather than providing training directly, we carefully select training partners who can deliver world-class training that meets the needs of people across the sector.

Who are the UKTA?

The UKTA is run by a committee of dedicated telecommunications professionals, with a significant level of combined experience across the world’s most advanced telecommunications companies and academic institutions. We operate globally and focus on reaching the corners of the world where training is hardest to come by, and where the need for these skills to support the economy is greatest.

 

UKTA Partners

Our training partners represent some of the leading organisations in the world in the delivery of telecommunications training. View our training courses.

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Leadership team

Gabriel Solomon, Chairman

Gabriel has more than 25 years international experience of communications led development. He spent the last decade working with the GSMA developing and promoting policies that support sustainable and affordable connectivity solutions. His experience spans management consulting, finance and business development for high growth ventures. Gabriel has a MBA from INSEAD.

Prof. Steven Capewell, Vice Chairman

Steve combines global operational experience where he has executed multiple telecoms and ICT projects with 20 years of teaching experience from beginners. to Master of Science level. In addition he has been responsible for Human Resource development work with the BT, Cable & Wireless and Royal Mail. Steve is responsible for marketing the UKTA’s global programmes.

Sarah Gaffney, Director

Sarah is the Senior Director for the GSMA’s Regulatory Capacity Building Programme, responsible for developing strategic, regional and global partnerships through which this specialised training is delivered. Sarah has over 10 years’ experience in the telecommunications industry, holds a BSc in Sociology and Communications from Brunel University and is a Prince2 and APMP qualified Project Manager.

Martyn Cook, Director

Martyn completed a successful military career before creating Cable Telecommunications Training Services in 1990, the largest independent telecommunications training company in the UK. As an internationally remgnised centre of excellence it received an award form the UK government for training innovation and meffectiveness. Martyn is a fellow of the Society for Broadband Professionals.

Prof. Derek Godfrey, Director

Derek combines deep academic and industry knowledge. He served as Deputy Vice Chancellor at Buckinghamshire New University until his retirement in September 2014 and was the Associate Dean, School of Engineering at Coventry University. His industry experience, with Cable & Wireless, Energis, BT, GEC-Marconi and Plessey includes strategy, business planning, financial management and network economics.

Dr. Ji Zhang, Director

Ji has been focusing on TMT (Technology, Media and Telecom) strategy in the past decade. He is now a Senior Strategy Manager at Vodafone Group, where he is responsible for building Vodafone’s overall technology strategy and driving strategic programmes. Previously he had worked for other UK major Telco’s, tier-1 management consulting firm and a leading semi-conductor company. Ji is passionate about emerging technologies and he holds a PhD degree from University of York in Mobile Internet.

Prof. lan Lloyd, Director

lan is Senior Research Fellow within Southampton University Law School with 30 years experience in the field. He is widely published (recent books include Information Technology Law, Oxford University Press and Telecommunications Law, Sweet and Maxwell) and is the general editor of the International Journal of Law and IT and an appraiser for the Computer Law and Security Review.

Dr Carmel Capewell, Advisor

Carmel is a Chartered Psychologist with the British Psychological Society and a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personal and Development (IPD) with twenty-five years teaching experience in industry and academia. She leads the HR Module on the UKTA’s E-MCM Masters’ programme. Carmel has a BSC in Psychology, MSC in Occupational Psychology and PhD from the University of Northampton.

Our History

The United Kingdom Telecommunications Academy was created in 1995 by the UK government in partnership with BT and Cable & Wireless with the objective of representing the UK industry to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) Development sector and fostering international training courses and accredited knowledge transfer.

Professor David P Mellor, OBE led the UKTA for 20 years as Chairman and is currently the UKTA’s Honorary President. With some 50 years of industry experience across 130 countries, David has an unparalleled wealth of experience that he continues to contribute to UKTA. He was Chairman of the ITU’s Telecommunications Development Advisory Group from 2003-06, founding Chair of ITU’s Capacity Building initiative and was appointed as Special Envoy for Academia by the ITU Secretary General.

For the UKTA, David developed and delivered a number of online Masters Degree programmes and established partnerships to deliver courses with leading universities, including the Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, the Universities of Cambridge, Strathclyde and Southampton. He was also responsible for establishing the partnerships with the ITU and University of Rwanda and AFRALTI and the Open University of Tanzania which is the current focus of the UKTA.

Under David’s leadership, the UKTA has educated and accredited many thousands of students and secured hundreds of scholarships. His work with the British Government in respect of innovative scholarship schemes was recognised in the Queens Birthday Honours in 2003 where he received the OBE. In 2012 he was recognised by the Open University in Tanzania when he received an Honorary Doctorate of Law.

 

David is currently a Visiting Professor of Telecommunications to the Open University of Tanzania and a Senior Research Fellow within Southampton Law School at the University of Southampton.

"UKTA has proved to be a worthy partner and we look forward to building on our relationship, educating more students and expanding the range of activities that we co-operate on. We are very grateful for the goodwill already shown by UKTA in the past, as we look forward to a brighter future in our cooperation." Professor Elifas T Bisanda, Vice Chancellor, Open University of Tanzania