A NEW raft of engineering jobs have been pledged for the north-west - and most will come to Bolton for their training.

Bosses at Openreach, the BT subsidiary responsible for the domestic telecoms network, say they are creating 255 posts across Greater Manchester, Lancashire, Merseyside, Cheshire and Cumbria.

This is to mainly support the roll-out of their full-fibre service and forms part of a wider 5,300-strong recruitment programme by the outfit.

And the new £1.7m Openreach training centre at Breightmet is expected to welcome the bulk of the north-west new starters.

Deputy Labour leader Angela Rayner, then Shadow Education Secretary, officially opened the training hub last year.

Around 2,500 apprentices a year go through the doors at the Breightmet site, which is equipped with real-life street scenes and mock homes, so engineers can practice their skills.

Their lessons can cover everything from laying cables and building joints to working on underground systems or old-fashioned telegraph poles.

Ducts and poles connect up all the premises to a nearby telecoms exchange, so engineers can tackle genuine problems they may encounter in the field.

An extra impetus has been added to the roll-out with the increase in the number of people working from home due to the effects of coronavirus and social distancing.

Robert Thorburn, Openreach regional director for the North, said: “As a major employer and infrastructure builder, we believe we can play a leading role in helping the UK 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 North West to build a career with us and help us upgrade broadband connections and continue improving service levels throughout the region.

"We’re also investing in our supply chain, which will support the creation of thousands of jobs based all over the UK."

The firm has also announced that it will be converting its 27,000 strong fleet to electric vehicles over the next decade.

Mr Thorburn added: "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 27,000-strong fleet. We’ll have completely transitioned to EVs by 2030.”

The company, which already has a 34,500 strong workforce before this new initiative, is looking to hit the 20 million home and business customers mark in the ultra-competitive market by the mid to late 2020s.

Openreach today bucked the prevailing economic trend by creating at least 255 new North West engineering jobs, to be filled during 2021.

The new roles, across Greater Manchester, Lancashire, Merseyside, Cheshire and Cumbria, will enable the company to continue improving service levels across its existing networks, whilst building and connecting customers to its new, ultrafast, ultra-reliable ‘Full Fibre’ broadband network at a record pace.

Overall, more than 5,300[1] new UK-based engineering jobs are being created, including more than 2,500 full-time jobs in Openreach’s own service and network build divisions, as well as an estimated 2,800 positions in its UK supply chain, through partners such as Kelly Group, Kier, MJ Quinn and Telent*[i].

The UK’s largest digital infrastructure firm has separately made a commitment to upgrade all 27,000 Openreach vehicles[ii] - the second largest commercial fleet in the UK - 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 we obtain the required critical enablers. Openreach engineers are now delivering faster, more reliable connectivity to another 40,000 homes and businesses every week, or the equivalent of a home every 15 seconds.

Full fibre build is already underway in dozens of locations across the North West, including the urban areas of Manchester, Liverpool, Bury and Ormskirk as well as harder to reach locations including Penrith, Millom, Great Eccleston, Burscough, Congleton and Frodsham.

The Centre for Economics and Business Research (Cebr) have found that a nationwide Full Fibre broadband network would boost UK productivity by £59 billion by 2025 – and updated modelling suggests it could enable nearly one million more people to access employment including over 300,000 carers, nearly 250,000 older workers and 400,000 parents.

The pandemic has accelerated changes in working patterns and, with full fibre, nearly two million more people than previously estimated could also choose to work from home in the long term, reducing transport and housing pressures in big cities and boosting local and rural economies across the country.

Openreach regional director for the North, Robert Thorburn, said: “As a major employer and infrastructure builder, we believe Openreach can play a leading role in helping the UK 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 North West to build a career with Openreach and help us upgrade broadband connections and continue improving service levels throughout the region. We’re also investing in our supply chain, which will support the creation of thousands of jobs based 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 27,000-strong fleet. We’ll have completely transitioned to EVs by 2030.”

More than 3.5 million premises can now order a gigabit capable Full Fibre broadband service from a range of competing service providers using Openreach’s new network, and the company is on track to reach its target of upgrading 20 million homes and businesses by the mid-to-late 2020s – assuming the right investment conditions exist.

Openreach already employs more than 34,500 people, including more than 25,000 engineers who build, maintain and connect customers to its nationwide broadband network. Of these, more than 3,700 are based in the North West.

Over the last two years, Openreach has created more than 6,500 trainee engineering roles 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 and recruits can be earning up to £28,353 following 12 months of specialist training to achieve an NVQ level 2, in one of Openreach’s world class training centres.

This year, Openreach placed 15th in The Sunday Times ’25 Best Big Companies To Work For’.

To find out more about becoming an Openreach engineer please visit our website at www.openreach.co.uk/te