Company will be recruiting for the new full-time permanent roles in North West locations including Liverpool, St Helens, Runcorn, Chester and Warrington. Tony McDonough reports.
Telecoms giant BT is to take on more than 150 trainee engineers across the North West through its fibre broadband network division, Openreach.
The company will be recruiting for the new full-time permanent roles in locations including Liverpool, St Helens, Runcorn, Chester and Warrington.
And potential candidates will be able to discover exactly what life as a field engineer involves, with the help of virtual reality (VR).
The company is trialling a VR experience which enables interested applicants to don a headset and experience climbing a telephone pole or exploring the local exchange building in immersive 3D, from the perspective of a real engineer.
Click here to view the 360 degree videos on Openreach’s YouTube channel
Nationally, it is expected that an initial intake of 119 recruits will join the company in April, followed by around 60 new recruits joining each week through to mid-October.
New trainees will embark on a tailored 12-month accredited learning programme – including on-the-job experience and culminating with the attainment of an externally recognised qualification for IT, software and telecoms professionals.
Kevin Brady, human resources director for Openreach, said: “Everyone wonders what it might be like to work for a company when they apply for a job, but we’re giving people the ability to physically see it and experience it for themselves.
“We get people from all walks of life applying for roles at Openreach and an increasing number of women wanting to be engineers, which is fantastic.
“Becoming an engineer can be a very rewarding career choice, and of course some aspects of the job are both mentally and physically challenging.
“We know, for example, that climbing a pole for the first time can be daunting for new recruits, and that’s why we wanted to give people a real insight into what’s involved.
“Hopefully it will help them to make a more informed decision when they come to apply.”
Click here to find out more about the Openreach traineeships