First Data Investor Services Group opened a new service center in King of Prussia, Pa., which will create 500 jobs for the area. About 200 people have been hired to fill call center and clerical positions in First Data's mutual fund administration and transfer agency units.
Some of those 200 new employees have been hired as part of a new company initiative -- Project Opportunity. Project Opportunity was developed by First Data in partnership with the Philadelphia Private Industry Council and is a welfare-to-work program. First Data is committed to hiring qualified applicants who are moving off welfare rolls, as well as workers displaced by layoffs from other companies.
The Private Industry Council provides job pre-training courses for applicants, and First Data follows up with extensive in-house training, said Jeanette Harrison-Sullivan, a company spokeswoman.
