Scotland's Full Fibre Charter: CityFibre case study

Scotland’s Full Fibre Charter consists of a series of pledges to help extend full fibre broadband across Scotland. The publication of Scotland’s Full Fibre Charter marks a significant milestone in the development of our ongoing relationship with key commercial communications providers.   

CityFibre is one of the UK’s largest wholesale fibre operators delivering full fibre digital infrastructure to communities and enabling broadband and 5G services to serve homes and businesses as well as schools, hospitals, and GPs surgeries.    

CityFibre is one of our founding Full Fibre Charter signatories having signed up with Axione and Openreach in December 2020. Borderlink, Cloudnet, Hyperoptic, Lothian Broadband Networks Limited and Virgin Media O2 signed up in April 2022.  

Case study - Creating connections with people  

CityFibre’s network rollout programme has already delivered connectivity to nearly half a million households across Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Renfrewshire, and Inverness, with their network build now complete in Stirling. In addition, CityFibre’s network reaches over 150 public sector sites across the Highlands, connecting vital services in communities such as Thurso and Fort William.   

To plan, deploy and maintain their network, CityFibre employs hundreds of people in Scotland both directly and through their supply chain within their build partner organisations. 

The Scottish Government recognises that to maximise full fibre coverage across the country, it is essential that Scotland’s workforce is equipped with the skills needed to rollout and maintain future-proofed digital infrastructure. Through the Full Fibre Charter, signatories have pledged to support and develop Scotland’s workforce, committing to providing work-based learning and other career development opportunities, and to attracting new and diverse talent to the telecoms sector. 

CityFibre is committed to making sure their workforce can access opportunities that allow them to enhance their skills and experiences and encourage continuous learning and professional development for everyone. 

A dedicated training programme and certification has been developed to upskill engineers in CityFibre’s build partner organisations to develop skills and experience in fibre and drive quality across the network.  The majority of their build partner operatives have completed at least one training programme at the Livingston training centre, which can either upskill existing staff, or train new entrants to the sector from scratch. 

Attracting new and diverse talent 

Working to create new pathways into the sector for young people, CityFibre offered Kickstart placements across their Scottish network build, and has recently registered as a Young Person’s Guarantee employer and partner employer. CityFibre is working to expand the design of its career pathways, with plans to develop more and closer relationships with local colleges and Job Centres with the aim of creating a continuous pipeline of new and young talent into their business and their network.   

Continuous development 

To continue developing their existing workforce, CityFibre offers internal apprenticeships to employees who wish to commit to obtaining a qualification in their area of expertise, as well as internal leadership and management qualifications. Since signing up to the Charter in December 2020, 40 employees in Scotland have completed an internal apprenticeship or leadership programme, supporting the development and upskilling of their Scottish workforce. 

To ensure that this experience is shared throughout the organisation, a formal mentoring scheme has been set up, allowing mentors and mentees to be matched depending on their needs. There are currently over 300 employees being mentored as part of this scheme.  

Supporting and developing Scotland’s workforce 

Signatories to Scotland’s Full Fibre Charter pledge to take steps to bring new talent into the telecoms sector, and to enhance the skills of Scotland’s existing telecoms workforce through the provision of high-quality work-based learning opportunities. 

CityFibre’s work to attract and retain a diversity of new recruits, and commitment to career progression through skills development and mentoring - both internally and in conjunction with build partners – are important contributions towards supporting and developing Scotland’s telecoms workforce, helping to position Scotland at the forefront of digital connectivity. 

“Our commitment to supporting career progression has been evidenced through our attitude towards continuous learning and opening training opportunities throughout the workforce.   

CityFibre is striving to create an inclusive workplace where everyone feels valued and respected because of their differences – a place where every employee can bring their full selves to work so they can reach their full potential and help us achieve our business goals.  

All our early and new careers and academy programmes help create new jobs with training for young people, career changers and under-represented groups. Within these we are not looking for people with experience in telecoms, meaning that we can focus on bringing more diverse talent, such as women new to telecoms and ex-military personnel into CityFibre.” Paul Wakefield, Senior Partnership Manager for Scotland.