Openreach to open 5,300 job vacancies

Image: Openreach

OPENREACH announced that it has created 5,300 new UK-based engineering job vacancies to be filled during 2021.

The new roles will allow the company to continue improving service levels across its existing networks whilst also building and connecting customers to its new 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 such as John Henry Group, Kier, Morrison Telecom Services, and Kelly Group.

The announcement comes as Openreach hits a record build rate for its full fibre broadband programme. It said that its engineers are now delivering connectivity to 40,000 homes and businesses each week – the equivalent of a home every 15 seconds.

Chancellor Rishi Sunak said, “Throughout this crisis I’ve been clear that our number one economic priority is to protect jobs so I’m delighted to welcome this announcement of 5,000 new skilled roles.

“We’re investing billions of pounds across the UK as part of our Plan for Jobs to ensure nobody is left without hope or opportunity.”

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.”

Openreach CEO, Clive Selley, commented, “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. We’re also investing in our supply chain, which will support the creation of thousands of jobs based all over the UK.

“We know the network we’re building can deliver a host of green benefits – from consuming less power to enabling more home working and fewer commuting trips – and we’re going to take that a step further, by committing to build and maintain that network using state of the art electric vehicles across our 27,000-strong fleet. We’ll have completely transitioned to EVs by 2030.”