Openreach taking on 215 workers in recruitment drive
British Telecom (BT) subsidiary Openreach is to hire 215 people in Scotland as part of a major recruitment drive.
British Telecom (BT) subsidiary Openreach is to hire 215 people in Scotland as part of a major recruitment drive.
Openreach - which is responsible for the copper wires and fibre connecting homes and businesses to local telephone exchanges - is taking on 180 engineers and 35 apprentices.
The new recruits are being hired from dozens of towns and cities, including Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Paisley.
They will help install new lines, fix faults and assist with rolling out fibre broadband across the country.
The recruitment drive comes as part of a UK-wide initiative which has seen Openreach employ 5,000 engineers and more than 700 apprentices in the last three years.
Openreach chief executive Clive Selley said: "Improving the service that we provide to customers is my number one priority and these new engineering recruits will be helping us connect more people on time and fix faults faster.
"Openreach is already rolling out superfast fibre broadband and is helping the government achieve its aim of reaching 95% of UK premises by the end of 2017.
"As we take the UK beyond superfast, many of these engineers will also be helping us get ultrafast speeds to up to 12 million homes by the end of 2020.
"We're making big investments to build and maintain our network, but we recognise there's much more to do and we want to attract the very best people to help us on that journey."
BT Scotland director Brendan Dick said: "This latest recruitment represents another major investment by BT in Scotland as a leading employer and provider of essential services.
"New recruits are now embarking on exciting careers in a fast-moving industry, which is making a major contribution to Scotland's future success."