BT to hire 1,000 fibre engineers

BT has created more than 1,000 engineering jobs at the company's infrastructure arm Openreach.

The vast majority of the roles will be installing broadband in customers' homes, BT said, with the roles being occupied by a mix of apprentices, ex-armed forces personnel and other candidates.

Four hundred apprenticeships will be offered, providing young people with a training scheme lasting two and a half years. The first year of the scheme will focus on installing BT broadband connections in customers' homes. Thereafter they will learn an extended range of engineering skills, with the aim of achieving a BTEC Level 3 Diploma and Certificate in ICT Systems and Principles. The qualification also encompasses academic studies in Maths, English and ICT.

BT said it has recruited 460 apprentices to date after receiving 18,500 applications - more than 40 for each job.

Openreach is to work alongside the Ministry of Defence and the Careers Transition Partnership to attract those who are due to leave the armed forces. It said than more than 1,000 staff from the armed forces have already been recruited and that its goal is to hire a further 200 in this latest initiative.

That leaves 400 roles which BT said it will fill "via other routes", claiming that it will focus on offering some of the roles to the long-term unemployed.

BT said that the jobs will be in addition to 1,500 engineers who were recruited during the past year and that after this phase of recruitment, the total number of broadband staff will be 6,000.

BT has invested £2.5bn in its broadband rollout across the UK, and Prime Minister David Cameron welcomed the news of further jobs being created.

"I warmly welcome the announcement from BT today. Working with business, the government is driving a transformation in UK broadband services and with an extra 100,000 homes and businesses gaining ‘superfast' broadband availability each week, this is already taking shape," he said.

"Providing much faster broadband speeds, and enabling millions more homes and businesses to enjoy these speeds is vital for driving investment and equipping the UK to compete and thrive in the global race," he added.