Welsh Government backs creation of 620 IT jobs at CGI with £3.2m grant

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IT services firm CGI has bagged 3.2 million of Welsh Government funding to help it create 620 new jobs in South Wales over the next five years.

The new jobs will consist of a mix of entry-level and more skilled positions in network engineering, security, technical design and service desk analysis, and will be located within the Bridgend County Borough area of South Wales.

The Canadian company, which has offices and service delivery centres across Europe, America and Asia Pacific, said the recruitment drive's aim is to increase CGI's growth as it works to add new cloud, security and government-focused offerings to its services portfolio.

CGI already claims to be the largest IT employer in South Wales, and employs around 900 people in the region.

Edwina Hart, Welsh government minister for economy, science and transport, said the announcement demonstrates CGI's commitment to workforce development in South Wales.

"Today's announcement is excellent news for the community with 620 new highly skilled jobs that will yield knock-on benefits for local businesses and the wider community," she said.

"I look forward to continuing to work closely with CGI to support its contribution to the Welsh economy."

Tim Gregory, president of CGI in the UK, added: "As we continue to grow our business and our clients increasingly adopt newer technologies such as cloud it is more important than ever that we can offer them a highly-skilled workforce."

This is the second round of Welsh government funding the company has received in recent months, having secured a grant from the Skills Growth Wales programme to assist with the ongoing development of its workforce's skills base.

Caroline Donnelly is the news and analysis editor of IT Pro and its sister site Cloud Pro, and covers general news, as well as the storage, security, public sector, cloud and Microsoft beats. Caroline has been a member of the IT Pro/Cloud Pro team since March 2012, and has previously worked as a reporter at several B2B publications, including UK channel magazine CRN, and as features writer for local weekly newspaper, The Slough and Windsor Observer. She studied Medical Biochemistry at the University of Leicester and completed a Postgraduate Diploma in Magazine Journalism at PMA Training in 2006.