Openreach to recruit 3,000 apprentices across UK over next year in push for full-fibre broadband

Telecoms company Openreach is creating more than 300 trainee engineer jobs in London as part of a drive to bring full-fibre broadband networks to homes and businesses.

The business, a division of BT, is recruiting more than 3,000 apprentices nationally over the next 12 months, including 322 in the capital.

About half will help support the company’s Fibre First programme, which aims to bring “ultra-fast” internet to millions of homes. Openreach said this year it will create new fibre connections to homes in Barking and Dagenham, Bexley, Croydon, Harrow, Merton, Redbridge and Richmond.

It has pledged to connect three ­million homes and businesses in the UK to full-fibre broadband by the end of next year.

Addressing the opening of Openreach’s training school in Peterborough, Work and Pensions Secretary Amber Rudd said: “This is a huge expansion in high-skilled, well-paying jobs across the UK.”