Alastair Hamilton / Financial Services / Gareth Morgan / Pearson Finance Services / Pearson plc / Suzanne Willmott

PEARSON Plc, the world’s learning company, has opened a new Finance Services centre in Belfast. Pearson Finance Services is expected to create up to 300 new jobs in the coming years, as part of Pearson’s plans to unify its global finance function.

Around 100 new roles are already in place, and more positions are currently open.

Invest NI have provided almost £2 million in public money towards securing the jobs and providing training.

Alastair Hamilton, Chief Executive, Invest Northern Ireland, said: “The establishment of this new financial and information management centre has already created new employment opportunities and will continue to drive job creation in Northern Ireland over the next few years.

“Pearson is the largest education company in the world, and this project represents a significant investment into the Northern Ireland economy, secured with our support.”

The company has been offered nearly £2 million of support from the Department for the Economy and Invest NI to help secure this project for Northern Ireland.

Gareth Morgan, Senior Vice President, Transformation, Enabling Functions, Pearson, said: “These new roles will offer a range of opportunities for accountants and analysts that will provide career paths that will benefit graduates and those in the early stages of their career.”

Alastair added: “We are delighted to welcome Pearson to Northern Ireland. The addition of this global name to the list of blue chip companies operating in here is testament to the quality of our people and the value of our proposition.

“We have had great success in not only attracting new investors, but also in helping those companies grow and expand their operations in Northern Ireland further. I am confident Pearson will have a similar positive experience.”

Suzanne Willmott, Director & Centre Lead, Pearson Finance Services, said: “Northern Ireland is an ideal location for our global finance centre and we are thankful for the support of Invest Northern Ireland, the Department for the Economy, EY and other partners in enabling this move.

“This is part of a major efficiency programme across Pearson’s finance function, which will enable us to introduce global best practices and ultimately make the business simpler and more efficient.”

Over the past couple of years, Pearson has been working to simplify the fragmentation and duplication of its back office and enterprise infrastructure.

For example, the company is reducing the number of Enterprise Resource Planning systems from over 60 instances of separate systems down to a single instance of Oracle.

This latest move is a further significant step in a major efficiency drive across Pearson’s technology, finance, procurement, supply chain and HR functions, the aim of which is to bring the general and administrative costs of running Pearson more in line with global best practice.