Openreach launches trainee engineer recruitment drive in Notts

More than 40 trainee engineer jobs are being created in Nottinghamshire as part of a major recruitment drive by digital network firm Openreach.

Trainees will join with telecoms experts to expand, upgrade, maintain and install services over the company’s national broadband network.

The firm, part of the BT group, is looking to hire 185 trainee engineers across the East Midlands, with  43 of those from Nottinghamshire.

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.”

The roles will be open to people of all ages and former trainees and apprentices have encouraged people in Nottinghamshire to consider signing up.

Nick Woodward, 47, a former wholesale sandwich form owner from Lincolnshire, joined Openreach as an apprentice engineer in 2015 and is today a field-based co-ordinator, which involves working alongside builders and construction firms ensuring infrastructure is ready for new developments. A lot of his work has been in Nottingham and Newark, with his role also frequently taking him to other areas of the country, and he said about joining Openreach: “I ran my own business for 22 years and I was going to retire. While in the process of selling the business I had a look at other opportunities and then I looked on the BT website and saw there were apprentices being taken on. I applied and I was taken on. It is the best thing I have ever done. I would just say to people ‘give it a go’. They train you and if you don’t like it, you can do something else, it is such a big organisation.”

In addition to the recruitment drive, Openreach also announced 10 new locations where it will be building FTTP networks in 2019.

Nottingham was one of the first to be announced in November last year. The announcement said the technology is capable of providing ultrafast speeds up to one gigabit per second (Gbps).