Giles Watling, MP for Clacton, has welcomed the creation of new jobs in Clacton, which will help to boost the UK’s digital economy.
Openreach is creating 3,000 new engineer roles to help deliver ultrafast fibre broadband to three million premises (FTTP). These new roles will be located throughout the country, with trainees joining the UK’s largest team of telecoms engineers working to expand, upgrade, maintain and install new services over Openreach’s national broadband network. 7 of these new roles will be in Clacton, and Openreach’s ‘Fibre First’ programme will deliver expanded FTTP networks initially in up to 40 towns, cities and boroughs. It has committed to making FTTP available to three million homes and business by the end of 2020 and, if the conditions are right, intends to go significantly further, bringing the benefits of this technology to the majority of homes and businesses in the UK.
Clive Selley, Chief Executive of Openreach, said: “We’re making great progress towards reaching our target of upgrading three million homes and businesses to full fibre by the end of 2020 – reaching 13k premises per week – and these new recruits will play a crucial role in that programme. Openreach is a people business and our new apprentices will enable us to fulfil our commitments, with an ultimate ambition to deliver the best possible connectivity to everyone, everywhere, equally, across the entire country.
Giles said: “It’s great news that Openreach is creating 7 jobs in Clacton. This investment will help bring faster and more reliable broadband to homes and businesses across the country.
“Access to the internet is now essential for both work and leisure. These new jobs will help create and service the next generation of digital infrastructure. It will also help maintain the UK’s competitiveness and spread opportunity around the country”.
Kevin Brady, HR Director, Openreach, said: “We want to get on with the job of delivering full fibre broadband to the UK, and that’s why we need to continue growing our team of highly skilled engineers ready to connect homes and businesses across the nation.
“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. We’re investing heavily in upskilling our people, so they can now do more for customers in a single visit and we recently launched new career pathways to give our engineers a clear sense of the skills, accountabilities and experience they need to get where they want to be.”