Openreach has announced plans to recruit 4,000 new employees during 2022, building on a year in which it brought more female engineers into the business than ever before.
The incoming staff will support Openreach’s nationwide rollout of full-fibre broadband, helping the company meet its current target to reach 25 million homes and businesses across the UK by December 2026.
Clive Selley, CEO of Openreach, said:
“Openreach is a people business first and foremost, so I’m proud that we’re continuing to invest heavily in our people, having hired and trained more than 8,000 new engineers over the last two years.
We’re rightly recognised as one of the best big companies to work for in the UK, and we’re determined to stay that way, so we’ve been building state of the art training schools all over the country where we can teach people the skills and techniques they need for long, exciting, and rewarding careers in engineering.”
Historically the engineering sector has been dominated by white men. Openreach has made a public commitment to increase diversity—adopting inclusive language in recruitment campaigns and other measures—and those efforts are beginning to show results.
“We want to reflect the communities we serve and give opportunities to people from all backgrounds,” Selley said. “I’m encouraged that we’ve recruited more women and people from minority groups this year compared to last year, but we’ve got much more to do in an industry that hasn’t been very diverse historically.”
Last year Openreach recruited around 600 women into trainee engineering roles, more than double the total from the previous year.
“These new recruits will play a crucial role as we continue to improve services for our customers and build the biggest and best broadband network in the UK, covering millions of rural and urban homes,” Selley added.
As part of the hiring drive, Openreach plans to create approximately 3,000 apprenticeships—its largest apprenticeship programme to date—to support vocational training and long-term workforce development.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson welcomed the announcement, noting the importance of jobs that help people progress and support their families. He highlighted the government’s £5 billion investment to expand gigabit-capable broadband nationwide and praised Openreach’s commitment to training the next generation of telecom engineers and professionals who will help deliver those goals and support economic growth.
Despite the welcome news, employers including Openreach face a challenging labour market. Record numbers of vacancies and sector-wide staff shortages are pushing starting salaries upward, meaning competitive pay will be important to attract and retain talent.
Record demand for staff
A report from the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) and consultancy KPMG found demand for staff rising as pandemic restrictions eased, while candidate availability fell—putting upward pressure on starting salaries across sectors and regions.
Neil Carberry, Chief Executive of the REC, commented:
“2022 will be the year we discover staff shortages will outlive the pandemic as an economic issue. This survey shows again how tight the labour market was at the end of last year. Demand for staff is growing across every sector and region of the UK, and candidate availability is still falling.
Businesses need to make sure they are reacting to the long-term challenges of this market, thinking harder about their offer to staff and how to shape their future workforce. Recruiters are ideally positioned to help employers with this, and support governments across the UK on the skills, immigration and tax reforms that are needed to keep us competitive.”
Openreach says the new roles come with a “very competitive” starting salary and clear long-term career paths. The company has stated that no formal qualifications are required for many positions—what matters most is a strong work ethic, good customer service skills, and enthusiasm for working outdoors.
“Openreach will give you all the equipment and training you need to do the rest,” the company added.
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