Employment in Belfast will be boosted by 1,500 jobs when the Halifax Bank announces later today that it is opening a major call centre in the city.

The bank is expected to confirm that it will employ 1,500 people over three years at a site on the Ormeau Road close to the city centre. It is understood that the centre will start by employing 300 people. Halifax will be the first major customer to set up on the riverside site of the former Belfast Gasworks, which has undergone several years of clearance and landscaping.

The new facility, which is backed by the Industrial Development Board, will handle banking inquires from customers across Britain.

A recent survey resulted in Belfast being named as the best place in the UK to site such a facility, and the Abbey National last week formally opened a call centre a few hundred yards away, creating nearly 700 jobs.

Local politicians from the Ormeau Road yesterday welcomed the arrival of the centre in the area, which suffers from relatively high levels of unemployment. Mr Alisdair McDonnell of the SDLP said the investment represented the fruits of eight years of work by local groups involved in the Gasworks Trust.

News of the substantial investment comes as the North's Education Minister, Mr John McFall, announced spending of £10 million sterling (€15.56 million) in developing information and communications technology within the further education sector.

He stressed yesterday that ICT competence is now an essential skill for people seeking employment.

"Last week, I had the pleasure of attending the official opening of an Abbey National call centre which is bringing 672 new jobs to Belfast," said Mr McFall.