CityFibre and O’Connor Utilities Launch Engineer Training Centre

The shortage of skilled UK fibre broadband engineers is quite a well-known problem, which has resulted in a number of network buildings and ISPs establishing their own training centres. CityFibre has now moved to do the same in South Yorkshire, which is being done in co-operation with civil engineering partner O’Connor Utilities.

At present CityFibre is busy investing £4.9bn into their rollout of gigabit-capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband ISP technology, which has so far enabled them to cover 1.7 million UK premises – with 1.5m ‘Ready For Service‘ via a supporting ISP (here). The aim is to cover up to 8 million premises – across around 285 cities, towns and villages (c.30% of the UK) – by the end of 2025 (here), but they also aspire to reach into rural areas via Project Gigabit (here).

One of the many contractors they work with on this deployment is O’Connor Utilities, which is currently conducting related civil engineering around locations such as Sheffield, Wakefield, Rotherham, St Helens and Leeds. As part of that, the pair have now agreed to launch the utility contractor’s first training facility in Sheffield, which will help people from across South Yorkshire to develop the engineering skills to do the work.

The training centre, which opens today in Newhall (Sheffield) is part of a £250k investment by OCU to recruit new talent into the industry and grow its workforce to support CityFibre’s rollout.

Richard Lye, O’Connor Utilities, said:

“We believe we have created a future-proofed facility that will secure the future of workforce competency that will, in turn, drive a range of benefits to positively impact the local and surrounding area’s residents and businesses. Thanks to our partnership with CityFibre, we recognised the demand for skilled workers and the need for a new Yorkshire training facility.

Training an accredited, competent and confident workforce is a top priority for both parties, and through utilising the skills and experience of our sister company, Instalcom, we have been able to deliver a world-class PIA training facility. We look forward to the centre’s growth and providing further accredited courses and training in future.”

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