Openreach creating 180 engineering jobs in the region

The new roles – in Shropshire and Wolverhampton, as well as Birmingham, Staffordshire, Warwickshire and Worcestershire – will see the trainees expand, upgrade, maintain and install services over Openreach’s national broadband network.

The roles include 15 in Shropshire, 75 in the West Midlands including Wolverhampton and Birmingham, 26 in Staffordshire and 19 in Worcestershire.

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, more reliable and future proof Fibre to the Premises (FTTP) technology to millions of front doors.

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

This brings the total number of towns, cities and boroughs at the forefront of the FTTP build to 25, with the company on-track to deliver its commitment of reaching three million homes and businesses with ‘full fibre’ broadband by the end of 2020.

Clive Selley, chief executive of Openreach, 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 13,000 premises per week – and these new West Midlands recruits will play a crucial role in that programme. Openreach is a people business and our new apprentices will enable us to fulfil our commitments, with an ultimate ambition to deliver the best possible connectivity to everyone, everywhere, equally, across the entire country.”

For the first time, Openreach also plans to publish details on its website detailing its build plans for the next 12 months, including the total number of exchange areas to be reached in each location. The company will update this information every three months.

Carl Sproston, Openreach’s partnership director in the Midlands, said: “We want people from all walks of life to apply for roles at Openreach, to build a diverse workforce that reflects the hugely diverse communities we serve. Last year we successfully recruited more women than ever before – and this year we want to go even further.

“Becoming an engineer can be an incredibly rewarding career, and we’re constantly improving our training and recruitment programmes, providing recognised qualifications, to make sure we attract and keep the best in the business.

"We’re investing 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.”

Find out more about the Trainee Engineer Scheme at openreach.co.uk/careers