New jobs created in Inverness and Moray as telecoms group continues broadband roll out
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Six new jobs are to be created in Inverness, with a further eight new roles in Moray, as Openreach continues to roll out superfast broadband across the country.
The Inverness and Moray posts are among 275 new engineering jobs to be filled across Scotland during 2021.
These new roles, alongside more roles in its supply chain, will enable Openreach to continue improving service levels across its existing networks, whilst building and connecting customers to its new, ultrafast full fibre broadband network.
Across the UK the country's largest digital infrastructure firm is creating more than 2500 full-time jobs in its own service and network build divisions, as well as an estimated 2800 positions in its UK supply chain, through partners such as KN Circet and Morrison Telecom Services. Both have both been awarded contracts to support Openreach’s full fibre build in Scotland.
The company has also made a commitment to upgrade all its vehicles, including the 3500 it operates in Scotland, to electric by 2030.
The announcement comes as the firm hit a record build rate for its Full Fibre broadband programme, which aims to reach 20 million homes and businesses by the mid-to-late 2020s on the assumption it obtains the required critical enablers.
Scotland's minister for energy, connectivity and the islands, Paul Wheelhouse, said: “I warmly welcome this news that Openreach is recruiting 275 more engineers to help keep Scotland connected and to further extend access to digital infrastructure for broadband services.
“Having visited Openreach’s training school in Livingston in early 2020, I could see for myself the excellent work done there and that the right engineering skills and ensuring a strong supply of them are going to be vital for Scotland as we move towards a full fibre future. These are also the sort of highly skilled and well paid jobs we need to create a low carbon, highly digitised economy.
“With Openreach securing the contracts to deliver superfast and gigabit speed broadband infrastructure across Scotland for our £600 million Reaching 100% Programme, this clearly supports this investment in future jobs and skills and is a key part of our ambition to deliver world-class digital infrastructure for Scotland. It is also excellent news that Openreach is fully decarbonising its vehicle fleet in Scotland and I welcome that investment in Scotland’s energy transition as we move to net zero emissions.”
Robert Thorburn, Openreach Scotland partnership director, said: “As a major employer and infrastructure builder, we believe Openreach can play a leading role in helping Scotland to build back better and greener. Our Full Fibre network build is going faster than ever and we’re now looking for people across the country to build a career with Openreach and help us upgrade broadband connections and continue improving service levels. We’re also investing in our supply chain, which will support the creation of thousands more jobs all over the UK.
“We know the network we’re building can deliver a host of green benefits – from consuming less power to enabling more home working and fewer commuting trips – and we’re going to take that a step further, by committing to build and maintain that network using state of the art electric vehicles across our 3500-strong Scottish fleet. We’ll have completely transitioned to EVs by 2030.”
Openreach already employs more than 34,500 people, including more than 25,000 engineers. Of these, around 3200 live and/or work in Scotland. Over the last two years, Openreach has created more than 600 trainee engineering roles in Scotland to support its build programme and to deliver improved customers service.
The new trainee apprenticeship roles will be filled during 2021 and come with a starting salary of £21,845. Recruits can be earning up to £28,353 following 12 months of specialist training.
