Foster Calls Up Over 300 New Jobs

The NI Enterprise Minister Arlene Foster has made a 'good call' and yesterday announced a 336-job expansion by Capita's life and pensions division at its call centre in north Belfast.

The expansion is being supported by Invest Northern Ireland, which has offered over £1m of support through its Short Term Employment Scheme (STES).

Announcing the expansion Arlene Foster said: "These new jobs, which will be created over the next four years, are very welcome in the current economic climate and offer a wide variety of opportunities including management and supervisory positions.

"The expansion will also open up new jobs to 'returners' to work, people who are keen to develop valuable transferable skills and those who are seeking to get on the employment ladder for the first time.

"The salaries generated will eventually contribute over £5m a year to the Northern Ireland economy," she added.

The DUP Minister added: "This project is the first to be announced under Invest Northern Ireland's Short Term Employment Scheme, which was set up earlier this year to stimulate job creation in response to the challenges of the global economic downturn.

"The scheme aims to create 4,000 jobs by 2014 and includes a range of temporary measures to support individuals to start a new business as well as employment support for established businesses."

The Minister added: "Invest NI has identified the business and financial services sectors as key drivers for growth in our economy and has worked hard to secure this project for Northern Ireland against competition from lower cost economies."

Capita has operated at Beacon House, Clarendon Dock, Belfast for almost five years, with a call centre servicing global companies such as Prudential, MetLife and Aviva.

Commenting, Anne Marie McGoldrick, Operations Director, Life and Pensions, Capita said: "We are forecasting significant sales growth for our Belfast operation over the next three years and in order to facilitate that growth, we will need to quadruple our employee numbers.

"Capita's very positive experience in Belfast to date, the competitive cost base of the Belfast operation together with Invest NI's support and the availability of suitable staff in the marketplace all combine to make upscaling our operations here a very attractive and viable strategy."

She added that Capita's life and pensions division is part of The Capita Group Plc, the UK's leading provider of BPO and integrated professional support service solutions.

The company has 45,000 people at more than 350 sites, including 64 business centres across the UK, Ireland, the Channel Islands and India.

(BMcC/CD)