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Breaking: BT to create 1,000 new UK jobs

BT has announced that it will create 1,000 permanent UK jobs, which it hopes to fill between now and April 2017.

The news comes as the British multinational telecommunications services company aims to meet its commitment to answer more than 80 per cent of BT Consumer customers’ calls from within the UK by the end of 2016.

The Consumer division has already filled an extra 1,000 roles in its UK contact centres to enable it to service more of its consumer customers in the UK.

The first place to benefit from the announcement will be Swansea, where the company will recruit an additional 100 customers service roles to add to the 50 extra advisors recently hired at the site.

The rest of the jobs will be spread across the UK at BT’s other existing contact centres. Further details will be announced in the coming months.

All of the jobs will be frontline roles in customer care. The company wants to recruit new advisors to answer customers’ queries, as well as apprentices and some graduates. Some of the latest batch of permanent jobs will be taken by the best agency advisors, who currently carry out BT work via Manpower.

Libby Barr, managing director of customer care at BT Consumer, said: “We announced in September 2015 that BT Consumer is going to answer more than 80 per cent of its customers’ calls in the UK by the end of 2016 and this means we need more people in our UK contact centres.

“We will have created 2,000 permanent UK jobs by the end of this process, including agency transfers, which is a fantastic boost for the UK economy and many regions where we are already a significant employer.

“Our advisors have recently agreed to support our investment back in the UK by voting to adopt a new work pattern to ensure we have more people available to answer calls in the UK at weekends and in the evenings. This demonstrates the commitment from everyone at BT to work together to improve customer service and to make things easy for our customers.”