Openreach announces 5,000 new jobs
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Faye Sutton
| 22 December 2020
Aiming to fulfill its full-fibre rollout programme, BT’s broadband provision division Openreach has announced that it plans to create 5,300 new UK engineering jobs, to be filled during 2021.
Openreach EV 22Dec2020

The new roles will be located throughout the country and, says Openreach, will enable it to continue improving service levels across its existing networks, while building and connecting customers to its new, ultrafast full fibre broadband network.

The expansion includes more than 2,500 full-time jobs in its service and network build divisions, as well as an estimated 2,800 positions in its UK supply chain, through partners including Kelly Group, Kier, MJ Quinn and Telent.

Commenting on the job creation scheme, Openreach CEO Clive Selley said: “As a major employer and infrastructure builder, we believe Openreach can play a leading role in helping the UK to build back better and greener. Our Full Fibre network build is going faster than ever and we’re now looking for thousands more people to build a career with Openreach and help us upgrade broadband connections and continue improving service levels.”

Digital Secretary Oliver Dowden added: “I welcome this tremendous investment by Openreach. It will help us build back better from the pandemic and create thousands of new, high skilled jobs delivering faster broadband to people across the UK. The plans are a huge step forward in our national mission to level up Britain's digital infrastructure and, alongside the government's £5 billion investment, will make sure even the hardest-to-reach areas get a lightning fast gigabit broadband connection.”

In a separate announcement, Openreach also plans to upgrade its fleet of 27,000 vehicles to electric by 2030. Openreach currently employs some 34,500 people, including more than 25,000 engineers across its network.