06
October
2014
|
23:00
Europe/London

BT creates new graduate and apprentice jobs in Northern Ireland

BT has created twenty new graduate jobs in Northern Ireland as part of a major nationwide recruitment drive announced earlier this year.

The latest intake of graduates, who begin their careers with BT, will be working in roles right across Northern Ireland in the areas of IT, finance, technology, research and engineering.

A number of the new entrants will be based in BT Technology, Service & Operations at the Belfast Global Development centre, working on a wide variety of cutting edge projects, including the future of broadcasting and wireless technology, coding, billing applications, security projects, and helping pioneer new developments in high speed fibre communication networks.

Over 260 graduates will be joining BT Group this year, one of the highest annual recruitment entry levels to date.

Colm O’Neill, Chief Executive, BT Ireland said: “This latest recruitment is great news for Northern Ireland, and is another example of BT’s commitment as one of the region’s largest private sector employers and investors. BT continues to work closely with the local universities in the promotion and development of key skills relevant to jobs in the technology space and as a direct result 86 per cent of our latest graduate intake has come directly from Queens University and the University of Ulster.

“I’m delighted that the majority of these new recruits will work in the fields of engineering and technology research, and that BT can continue to play a positive role by taking on new talent and advancing their skills through mentoring and training.”

In addition to the latest intake of graduates, 13 apprentices will also be starting their careers with BT in Northern Ireland early in the coming year. The new apprentices will train as multi-skilled customer service engineers with the installation and maintenance of next generation super-fast fibre broadband top of their training schedule.

In addition to BT’s direct investment, BT has jointly invested with the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment in the deployment of Next Generation Broadband services. As a result of these investments over 90 per cent of all premises in Northern Ireland are now connected to a fibre-enabled street cabinet, putting the province ahead of the majority of European countries. The current deployment of the Northern Ireland Broadband Improvement Project will result in the delivery of improved broadband services for 45,000 premises. This £24.5 million investment supported by BT will deliver broadband technologies and infrastructure in some of Northern Ireland’s most remote locations.

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