SOME 160 new graduate-level jobs have been announced by Irish business process outsourcing firm VoxPro.

The jobs, which will be created by the end of the year, will be based at the company’s centre in Blackrock, Co Cork.

The announcement comes on the back of a number of large contracts won by VoxPro. The company will nearly treble its workforce as a result of the new jobs.

The announcement is the second major jobs boost for the Co Cork region this week.

Abtran, another business services provider, announced on Monday it was to create 300 new jobs at its customer service and support call centre outside Cork city by 2012.

VoxPro’s managing director Dan Kiely said yesterday the company has been strongly focused on growing its international business, and the majority of the new contracts it won were in the US and Britain.

Taoiseach Brian Cowen yesterday praised the initiative shown by VoxPro. At the official announcement of the jobs expansion, he said it provided an example of how indigenous industry could help stimulate economic recovery.

Mr Cowen said Ireland’s future economic prosperity would be export-led, and companies such as VoxPro were leading the way by developing its international business.

“VoxPro is a strong example of a successful locally-trading service company which, with a focus on innovation and the clever use of technology, has managed to extend its business outside Ireland.

“Here’s a company with good capable people at the helm that’s going to increase its turnover by 60 per cent this year over last year – it’s going to increase its number of jobs from 80 to getting another 160 jobs over the next 12 months by going out there and doing business.”

VoxPro specialises in customer service, technical support, appointment management, back-office processing and telemarketing.

The company was founded in 1983, and was bought out by Dan Kiely and Linda Green in 1995.