Openreach has announced plans to create and fill around 500 more Scottish jobs during 2022 to expand its Full Fibre broadband network.

The move will be driven by the company’s continued investment into its UK broadband network, people and training. The figures will include around 390 apprenticeships.

The new recruits will be based across Scotland, with around 65 posts each in Fife and across Ayrshire, 55 in both Edinburgh and Glasgow, 40 each for Angus and Dundee as well as the Highlands and Islands; and 30 each for Stirling and Scottish Borders.

The new workers will help Openreach fulfil its plans to connect 25 million UK homes and businesses to its Full Fibre broadband network by December 2026. The company has already reached more than half a million properties in Scotland.

The new 500 workers will join the 3,700 people already employed by the company across Scotland. It also forms part of Openreach’s plan to hire an additional 4,000 people across the UK. This forms the largest recruitment drive in Openreach’s history.

CEO of Openreach Clive Selley 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, over 800 of them across Scotland.

“We’re rightly recognised as one of the best big companies to work for, and we’re determined to stay that way, so we’ve been building state of the art training schools where we can teach people the skills and techniques they need for long, exciting and rewarding careers in engineering.”

The new hiring plans will help meet Openreach’s commitments to diversify its workforce.

Last year, 17% of the company’s intake of trainee engineers in Scotland was female, more than triple the previous year. The boost was thanks partly to employing language experts to transform its job adverts and descriptions, making them gender neutral.

“We want to reflect the communities we serve and give opportunities to people from all backgrounds, so I’m encouraged that we’ve recruited more women and 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,” Selley added.

“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 Scotland.”

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Alongside its recruitment drive, Openreach has committed to represent ONS measured levels of ethnic diversity across the UK and is aiming for at least 20% of its trainee engineer recruits to be women this year, with 50% of its external hires into management to be women by 2025.

Openreach also plans to retrain more than 3,000 of its existing engineers during the next year – changing their focus from fixing older, copper-based technologies to installing and maintaining faster, more reliable fibre connections. Its national training centre in Livingston, West Lothian, expects to deliver 11,000 training days during the 2022/23 financial year.

Scottish Government Employment Minister Richard Lochhead added: “Accessing fast and reliable broadband has never been so important. Building on the early success of our Young Person’s Guarantee and our ongoing significant investment in education, employability and skills, these additional 500 high quality jobs being created by Openreach will increase opportunities across Scotland.

“Apprenticeships are a key way for all employers to continue to invest in their workforce, providing core skills the economy needs now and in the future. This is central to the Scottish Government’s immediate priority to lead the country through the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic into a recovery that protects and creates jobs and backs our young people.”

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