Broadband altnet Quickline create 250 micro-internships across Yorkshire UK

Rural broadband ISP Quickline, which is building a new full fibre (FTTP) and fixed wireless (FWA) network across parts of Yorkshire and Lincolnshire in England, has announced that they’ve partnered with careers platform Springpod to create 250 micro-internship opportunities for young people and jobseekers across South and West Yorkshire.

The 4-week long micro-internships, designed for students from Year 9 to Year 13, give participants the chance to tackle real challenges set by employers, from exploring how AI could solve social and environmental problems to developing ideas for lower-carbon communities. The initiative forms part of Quickline’s social value commitments under their Project Gigabit broadband roll-out contracts with the Government.

The partnership will also give 30 schools and colleges in South Yorkshire access to Springpod’s Ignite programme, helping students explore different careers, develop digital skills and prepare for the world of work.

The first Ignite licence activations and the joint Quickline and Springpod microsite are targeted for November 2026, with the micro-internship programme also expected to go live in late October or early November.

Elisabeth Kamaris, Social Value Lead for South Yorkshire at Quickline, said:

“Bringing fast, reliable broadband to communities is hugely important, but connectivity alone doesn’t create opportunity. People also need the skills, confidence and experience to make the most of an increasingly digital world.

That’s what makes this partnership with Springpod so exciting. We’re giving young people and jobseekers opportunities to develop practical skills and experience the type of challenges they could encounter in the workplace, wherever they’re starting from.

The micro-internships are particularly valuable because participants won’t simply be learning about work. They’ll be tackling real-world problems, developing solutions and demonstrating what they can do.

Through our work delivering Project Gigabit, we’re helping bring fast, reliable broadband to communities that might otherwise miss out. But it’s about more than connectivity. Partnerships like this help people develop the skills and experience they need to access new career opportunities and build their futures locally.”

At the end of 2025 Quickline’s full fibre broadband network covered 200,000 premises (excluding fixed wireless coverage, which also covers c.200,000 premises – not all gigabit-capable) and this had expanded to 260,000 premises across Yorkshire and Lincolnshire by August 2026. The figure also includes their separate commercial build, which complements the Project Gigabit expansion.