In an effort to boost its digital transformation plans, telecom giant BT has announced a plan to nearly double its digital skills team across the UK and India.
BT is looking to grow its digital talent staff to 6,300 people in just two years. The new staff will all be filling high-skill digital positions for emerging technology sectors, the company said.
Software engineering, cloud, data, and AI/machine learning are just some of the areas where BT is looking to boost headcount as it continues its focus on digital transformation.
The new staff will be based across the numerous BT UK hubs in Birmingham, Manchester, Bristol, Belfast, Ipswich, and London. In addition, an influx of India-based staff will be bolstering BT’s Indian hubs in Bengaluru and Gurugram.
The new hires will go towards the company plan to “accelerate BT’s transformation, innovation and return to growth”, according to BT’s chief digital and innovation officer Harmeen Mehta.
“To succeed, we need to bring in and upskill the top digital talent, and our efforts will boost the tech communities in the UK and India along the way,” Mehta added.
Earlier this year, BT invested £10m – with a planned extension to £30m later – as part of a partnership with the UK startup Distributed.
Distributed, which raised an additional £8m elsewhere in June, supplies freelance software developers to companies looking to boost digital teams. BT gained access to Distributed’s “elastic team” of freelancers to further support its digital revamp.
This week, the Communication Worker Union (CWU) is expected to announce a series of strike dates after failing to reach an agreement with BT on staff pay.
BT has requested that the trade union guarantees uninterrupted access to the 999 emergency service line during the strikes.
BT said that the hiring boost for digital skills professionals is not related to the impending strike action.
The post BT aims to double digital skills team by 2024 appeared first on UKTN | UK Tech News.
