This is sort of how I got my start as a network engineer in the US, a dozen or so years ago.

There was a large skills gap in the area (still is, IMO)...so the company started hiring people that had no training but had a good technical aptitude with the intent to train them directly.

I know a lot of really great engineers that got their start through that program.

The company has since been bought, and bought again. We've all mostly scattered to the wind. But I still run into some of them every now and then as vendors for my current employer...our current VoIP consultant came from that program, and honestly I don't know anybody who knows IP Telephony better than him.