BT's network infrastructure division Openreach announced it will hire 3,500 new trainee engineers over the next 12 months on Thursday.
The division said the recruitment drive - the largest in its history - would see hiring take place across Great Britain, following last month's announcement that it would accelerate plans to build more fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) broadband infrastructure.

It said the new roles will be located throughout the country, with trainees joining existing engineers working to expand, upgrade, maintain and install new services over Openreach's national broadband network.

Taken together, with an expected expansion in its supply chain, Openreach said it would support the creation of around 5,000 new jobs in Britain in the coming year.

"It's great news that Openreach is creating 3,500 new permanent jobs rolling out full fibre broadband," said Chancellor of the Exchequer, Philip Hammond.

"This digital infrastructure will be welcomed by families and business across the country, and these new highly skilled jobs will be a boost to our talented workforce as we build an economy fit for the future."

Speaking ahead of the official opening of Openreach's new training centre in Bradford, one of 12 new regional fibre training centres built to support the rollout, Openreach chief executive Clive Selley said the trainee engineers would be playing a "vital role" in the future success and prosperity of the UK.

"Over the last year our 22,200 engineers have been the driving force behind Government reaching its target of making 'superfast' broadband available to more than 95% of the country, whilst also improving our customer service performance - but we want to do more.

"Every day, Openreach engineers are working in all weathers across the length and breadth of Britain, connecting homes and businesses and making sure people can access the high quality broadband services they need.

"We are already investing in upskilling our engineering team and today's announcement of new jobs underlines our commitment to make our 'Fibre First' programme a reality - future-proofing Britain's broadband network and supporting emerging mobile technologies like 5G."

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