Openreach trainee engineers report a hands-on wiring task and a colour check at the assessment day, not just tests on paper

Candidates describe maths and English assessments at the Openreach assessment day, roughly 40 minutes each. Our reasoning test is numerical tables plus reading passages with True, False or Cannot say answers, so it rehearses the two skills those papers check: working with numbers calmly and reading carefully against a clock.

Openreach does not publish the content of its maths and English papers, and candidates describe them as basic, so our test is harder and more business-flavoured than what you are likely to meet. It does not cover the situational strengths test, the video interview, the hands-on wiring exercise or the colour vision check that candidates report.

Most employers on this site end with interviews and group discussions. Candidates who have sat the Openreach assessment day describe something closer to a taster of the job. After a presentation about the company, the group is often split in two: one half sits the maths and English papers while the other goes straight to a practical skills exercise, then the halves swap.

The practical exercise, as candidates describe it, means wiring up telephone sockets or a small switchboard, or crimping connectors on a wooden board, inside a short time limit. One reviewer gave the figure as 20 minutes. Nobody expects you to arrive as a trained engineer. What the assessors seem to watch is whether you follow a written or spoken instruction exactly, work neatly, and stay calm when a wire will not seat properly.

Reviewers consistently call these papers basic: everyday arithmetic, measurements, reading a short text and answering about it. A few describe them as a check on your current level rather than a strict pass or fail. Openreach does not publish a pass mark or the question count, so nobody outside can tell you a number to hit.

Basic does not mean you can coast. Under a clock, small slips in long multiplication, unit conversion or percentages are what sink people. Work through a handful of mixed questions each evening for a week. Our numerical reasoning test is pitched above this level, which makes it useful as stretch practice: if tables and percentages feel comfortable there, a GCSE-style paper will feel easier on the day.

Telecoms engineering relies on colour-coded cables, and at least one candidate account lists a colour blindness check as part of the day. Another reviewer joked that the wiring is easy unless you are colour blind. If you know you have a colour vision deficiency, raise it with the recruitment team before the day rather than discovering a problem at the bench. Ask what support or adjustments exist; do not assume you are ruled out.

Trainee engineer adverts found in search results also ask for a full manual driving licence with a limited number of penalty points, a head for heights and comfort working outdoors and underground. Check the exact rules on the advert you are answering, because they decide eligibility before any test score does.

The early online step, as described by apprenticeship listing sites, is a situational strengths test: short workplace scenarios where you rate or pick responses. There are no right answers to memorise, but there is a consistent picture Openreach is looking for. Engineers work alone in customers' homes, on poles and in street cabinets, so safety, honesty with customers and owning a problem until it is fixed tend to matter more than speed.

Answer as the careful, reliable version of yourself. Our situational judgement guide explains how these scenario tests are built and why trying to guess a hidden pattern usually backfires.

Candidates mention two conversations: one on suitability for field work, covering health and safety and customer service, and one on past behaviour, where you describe times you solved a problem or dealt with someone unhappy. Examples from part-time jobs, sport, volunteering or helping relatives with technology all count.

Prepare three short stories in advance: a time you kept something safe or followed a rule when it was inconvenient, a time you calmed down an annoyed person, and a time you stuck with a fiddly practical job until it worked. Each story should say what you did, not what the team did.

These come from anonymous reviews, university careers pages and prep guides. They often disagree, and Openreach has not confirmed them. Read them as leads, not rules.

• Candidates on Glassdoor describe the assessment day as half a day: a presentation, then maths and English papers and a practical skills assessment, run in two groups that swap.
• Several reviewers say the maths and English papers last about 40 minutes each and call the content straightforward.
• Candidates describe the practical as wiring BT-style switches or crimping connectors on a wooden board, and one gives a time limit of 20 minutes.
• At least one candidate lists a colour blindness test as a step on the day.
• Reviewers report timelines from about four weeks to twelve months from application to offer.