Telecoms giant set to take on new recruits
TECH-MINDED people from Leicestershire could be celebrating after a telecoms giant announced its looking for new recruits.
Openreach is looking for 1,500 trainee engineers from across the UK over the next eight months to help extend its fibre broadband network and improve customer service.
There will be 70 new posts across the East Midlands while jobs are also going to be created in Coalville, Leicester and Loughborough.
All the new roles will be full-time and permanent.
Openreach employs around 32,000 people nationally, building and maintaining millions of miles of fibre and copper cables which connect every home and business in the UK to local telephone exchanges.
Parent company BT recently agreed to demands from regulator Ofcom to separate Openreach from its main phone, broadband and TV business to provide a more level playing field for other Openreach customers such as Sky, TalkTalk and Vodafone.
In a new approach to finding the right recruits, candidates will be able to discover what goes into being a field engineer – from climbing telegraph poles to inspecting underground chambers – using virtual reality and 3D headsets.
Those who get signed up will embark on a 12-month accredited learning programme – including on-the-job experience and culminating with an externally recognised qualification for IT, software and telecoms professionals.
Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport Karen Bradley said: “The Government’s £1.7 billion rollout programme has helped take superfast broadband to more than nine out of 10 homes and businesses in the UK and we are reaching thousands more every week.
“Openreach engineers have played a pivotal role in helping deliver this, and these 1,500 new recruits will be a fantastic addition to our thriving digital economy.”
Richard Hall, Openreach’s director for regional infrastructure delivery in the East Midlands, said: “We know from past experience that the East Midlands is an excellent place to recruit skilled and motivated people, who make great engineers.
“Openreach is able to offer them a rewarding career in an exciting and fastmoving industry.
“The trainee engineers will be playing a vital part in the future success and prosperity of our region.
“High-speed communications have never been more important for local households and businesses – and will become even more important in the years ahead.”
Openreach chief executive Clive Selley said: “Improving customer service is our number one priority so we’re investing in our people to make sure we deliver.
“Our customers need us to install new lines and repair our network faster than ever, and by increasing the number of people working on proactive network maintenance, we can fix more issues before people even notice them.
“We are also continuing to roll out superfast broadband services at scale and making big investments in our network to make ultrafast broadband available to up to 12 million homes by the end of 2020.
“We want to recruit the very best people to help us on that journey and our new trainee engineering roles will offer people the hands on experience they need to succeed.”