28
November
2017
|
07:18
Europe/London

Birmingham Youngsters Can Kick-Start Their Careers With Free BT Work Placements

Summary
The next free BT work placements in Birmingham for unemployed young local people start this Friday at the company's main telephone exchange in Station Street, opposite Grand Central Station. More information is available from www.bt.com/workready

BT is on the lookout for young people in Birmingham who are ready to kick-start their working life with a free work placement.

The three week course, combining hands-on work experience with coaching and training, is open to anyone aged 16 to 24 not currently in education, employment or training.

The work placement offers the opportunity for people to build confidence and learn practical work skills such as CV writing and interview techniques. Attendees are given a certificate showing their attendance and achievements to demonstrate their commitment to prospective employers.

The next work placement in Birmingham, for up to 15 young people, starts on Friday, December 1, 2017 and will be held at BT’s Midland telephone exchange in Station Street, opposite ‘Grand Central’ in the city centre. For more details or to apply visit www.bt.com/workready.

The first week of the course is mainly office based and focuses on building and developing practical work skills such as time management, customer service and computing skills.

This is followed by a week ‘on the job’, shadowing employees and getting hands on experience of the working day. In Birmingham, this will be an opportunity to work alongside engineers from Openreach, the business responsible for Britain’s largest phone and broadband network, as they build and maintain the millions of miles of fibre and copper cables that connect UK home and businesses to local telephone exchanges.

The final days of the work placement are spent doing mock interviews, creating a stand-out CV and developing an individual plan of the next steps to find employment or return to education.

Colin Bannon, chair of BT’s regional board in the West Midlands, said: “A BT work placement is a fully supported programme, which can inspire young people, giving them the confidence and skills they need to either start their working life or return to education.

“I would encourage any young person looking to get on a new career path to join a work placement. We regularly run courses in the West Midlands so even if you can’t attend this particular course, register your interest to make sure you don’t miss out in the future.”

BT work placements are part of the BT Work Ready programme which is a series of initiatives provided to help young people, particularly from disadvantaged backgrounds, gain employment skills and get them ready for work. It’s part of BT’s commitment as a founding partner in the Movement to Work coalition of employers.**

BT has been running Work Ready since 2014 and to date more than 3,500 young people from around the UK have participated in the programme.More than half have gone on to either gain employment or return to education.

Further information on BT’s Work Ready programme – www.bt.com/workready

ends

For further information about this news release please contact the BT regional press office on 0800 085 0660. All our news releases can be read at http://www.btplc.com/News

Notes to Editors

** Movement to Work offers work placements to 16-24-year-olds who are not in education, employment or training. And particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds who can struggle to identify and take advantage of employment opportunities.

www.movementtowork.com

BT is a lead company for the charity, which is a collaboration of UK employers aiming to tackle youth unemployment by providing high-quality work experience placements.

About BT

BT’s purpose is to use the power of communications to make a better world. It is one of the world’s leading providers of communications services and solutions, serving customers in 180 countries. Its principal activities include the provision of networked IT services globally; local, national and international telecommunications services to its customers for use at home, at work and on the move; broadband, TV and internet products and services; and converged fixed-mobile products and services. BT consists of six customer-facing lines of business: Consumer, EE, Business and Public Sector, Global Services, Wholesale and Ventures, and Openreach.

For the year ended 31 March 2017, BT Group’s reported revenue was £24,062m with reported profit before taxation of £2,354m.

British Telecommunications plc (BT) is a wholly-owned subsidiary of BT Group plc and encompasses virtually all businesses and assets of the BT Group. BT Group plc is listed on stock exchanges in London and New York.

For more information, visit www.btplc.com