Openreach recruiting 80 trainee engineers across the Black Country and Birmingham

They are among 3,500 new engineers across the UK being recruited to help deliver ultrafast Fibre to the Premises broadband to three million premises, support mobile networks and improve customer service.

It follows news that Openreach, formerly the digital network business of BT, will accelerate plans to build more ultrafast Fibre to the Premises (FTTP) broadband across the country.

The 79 roles, part of 3,500 available across the UK during the next 12 months, will be located around the Black Country and Birmingham, including in Wolverhampton, Walsall, Penn, Dudley, Brownhills, Birmingham, Bridgnorth, Kidderminster, Kinver, Stafford and Stourport.

Openreach has also announced plans to invest about £100,000 over the next 12 months developing a new fibre engineering academy at its Yarnfield Park training centre, near Stone, in Staffordshire, in addition to the pole forest, underground cable chambers and other existing facilities at the site.

The trainees will join the UK’s largest team of telecoms engineers working to expand, upgrade, maintain and install new services over Openreach’s national broadband network.

Openreach’s ‘Fibre First’ programme will deliver expanded ‘full fibre’ FTTP networks in up to 40 towns, cities and boroughs, setting it on a trajectory to reach 10 million British premises by the mid-2020s. It has committed to making FTTP available in three million British homes and business by the end of 2020. The roll-out will start in eight cities: Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Leeds, Liverpool, London and Manchester.

Clive Selley, chief executive of Openreach, said: “These trainee engineers will be playing a vital role in the future success and prosperity of the UK. Over the last year our 22,200 engineers have been the driving force behind Government reaching its target of making 'superfast’ broadband available to more than 95 per cent of the country, whilst also improving our customer service performance - but we want to do more.

“We are already investing in upskilling our engineering team and today’s announcement of new jobs, including 79 in the Black Country and Birmingham, underlines our commitment to make our ‘Fibre First’ programme a reality – future-proofing Britain’s broadband network and supporting emerging mobile technologies like 5G.”

Richard Hall, infrastructure delivery director for Openreach in the West Midlands, added: “This latest recruitment represents a further major investment in the West Midlands. It’s very exciting news for our region. We’re looking forward to men and women from all walks of life applying for these roles at Openreach as we’re keen to engage with the aspiring engineers of tomorrow and to build a diverse workforce that reflects the hugely diverse communities we serve.

“Becoming an engineer can be an incredibly rewarding career, and we’re constantly improving our training and recruitment programmes to make sure we attract and keep the best engineers in the business. This year we’ve invested heavily in upskilling our people, so they can now do more for customers in a single visit and we recently launched new career pathways to give our engineers a clear sense of the skills, accountabilities and experience they need to get where they want to be.

“We’re committed to helping people realise their potential so we’re also delighted to be offering work experience placements, under the Movement to Work programme, to 18-24 year olds who are currently not in education, employment or training. West Midlands courses are often held in places like Walsall, West Bromwich, Birmingham, Coventry and Stoke-on-Trent. Further details are available at www.movementtowork.com”