Net yourself new career as web firm looks for trainees

AN internet broadband firm has announced hundreds of new jobs - and some of the roles are in Gloucestershire.

More than 400 trainee engineers will be hired by Openreach across south west England, as part of a huge recruitment drive.

The new roles - in Gloucestershire, Bristol, Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Somerset and Wiltshire - will see the new recruits join the country’s largest team of telecoms experts working to expand, upgrade, maintain and install services over the national network.

Across the UK, more than 3,000 trainee engineers are being recruited, mainly to deliver the company’s ‘Fibre First’ programme, which is bringing faster and more reliable web access to millions.

There will be 69 new roles offered in Gloucestershire.

Chief executive of Openreach Clive Selley said: “Openreach is ambitious for the UK and is determined to build full fibre as quickly as possible to ensure the country has a reliable broadband network capable of supporting future data-hungry services and applications essential for boosting productivity and sustaining our position as a leading digital economy.

“We’re making great progress towards reaching our target of upgrading three million homes and businesses to full fibre by the end of 2020 reaching another 13k premises per week - and these new south west recruits will play a crucial role in that programme.”

Alongside the latest recruitment drive, Openreach is also announcing 11 new locations where it will be building new FTTP networks during 2019.

Such connections can deliver download speeds of up to 1 Gigabit per second - enough bandwidth for a family of four to all stream ultra HD movies simultaneously without interruption.

Speaking at the official opening of Openreach’s new training school in Peterborough, Secretary of State for Work and Pensions Amber Rudd said: “This is a huge expansion in high skilled, well paying, jobs across the UK and yet another demonstration of the jobs success we have seen since 2010.

“And it is also good news that these are some new training roles, developing the skills of our workforce.”

For more visit btplc.com/careercentre/careersatbt/openreach/engineers/ index.htm