BT's New Contact Centre Officially Opens

Enterprise Minister Arlene Foster has officially opened BT’s state-of-the-art contact centre in Belfast.

BT's major investment, announced in May this year, has created more than 100 new jobs to date and was supported by Invest Northern Ireland’s Jobs Fund. The Department for Employment and Learning (DEL) also offered training support under its Assured Skills programme.

The centre, based in Belfast's Riverside Tower, employs multi-skilled customer-service advisors who can work across any part of BT Group that requires additional resource. It has the latest contact centre technology to help employees deal with the diverse situations they will handle.

Arlene Foster said: "BT has a long history of investing in Northern Ireland and selected Belfast as the location of its new contact centre due to the calibre of staff available in Northern Ireland and the support offered by Invest NI and DEL.

"The jobs created contribute £2.9million a year in salaries to the economy which is a welcome boost for the business sector in Northern Ireland and for our economy as a whole.

"Invest NI's Jobs Fund has proved extremely effective in enabling BT to progress and complete its recruitment in under nine months. The Fund has created over 1,750 new jobs across Northern Ireland to date and I would encourage other export focused businesses that are looking to grow and create jobs to get in touch."

In addition to the significant BT Northern Ireland operation, BT Group now has four additional centres in Northern Ireland – including a global research and development centre and two digital care centres – employing more than 1,000 people.

(CD/GK)