BT to Create 428 New UK Apprenticeship and Graduate Jobs

Broadband and telecoms giant BT Group has announced that they will aim to hire a further 428 UK apprentices (229) and graduates (199) this year – part of their September 2021 intake plan. But the figure is down from the 700+ promised via last year’s September 2020 intake plan and comes at a time of job losses elsewhere.

Much like previous years, BT intends to recruit talent into the company across areas as diverse as engineering, customer service, applied research, and cyber-security. The new roles will also be spread across a number of locations including: Belfast, Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Dundee, Edinburgh, Ipswich, London and Manchester among others.

The announcement comes only a month after Openreach announced that they intended to create another 5,300 engineering jobs during 2021, which will support the on-going rollout of their Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband network to 20 million UK premises by around 2025-30.

Meanwhile anybody interested in the new apprentices and graduate positions can apply here – https://www.bt.com/careers/early-careers.

Alison Wilcox, BT’s Group HR Director, said:

“BT is at the heart of the UK’s digital economy and as a leading employer of apprentices and graduates we offer unparalleled development opportunities. Despite the uncertainty caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, we’ve continued to recruit and attract brilliant people from all walks of life into our business, and we value the diverse perspectives they bring. We look forward to welcoming the 2021 newcomers.”

Naturally the Secretary of State for Education, Gavin Williamson CBE MP, has been quick to say that the announcement represents “brilliant” news and that he hopes “more employers will follow BT’s lead so more people can get on the path to a great job.”

On the flip side this news comes at a difficult time for the operator, which has been having to defend itself against complaints from unions about recent job losses and threats of strike action over contract changes (example). The operator is currently trying to cut its costs after a rough few years, not least in order to help fund the deployment of full fibre and other improvements in their business.