A management services company is expanding its workforce with the creation of 400 jobs across central Scotland.
French firm Webhelp TSC, which employs 3,000 people in Scotland, is setting up 294 call centre jobs at its Glasgow base, 76 in Larbert and 30 in Kilmarnock.
The company has also set up its own training academy to promote youth employment.
Its expansion is intended to meet growing demand for services provided by the company's call centres in Larbert, Greenock, Kilmarnock, Dunoon, Rothesay and Glasgow.
The staff will be recruited in a two-year rolling programme that has already begun, with 50 new employees aged 18-24.
The expansion is being helped by Regional Selective Assistance from Scottish Development International worth £1.5 million, paying for fittings and IT equipment.
First Minister Alex Salmond said: "Four hundred new jobs across the central belt of Scotland is fantastic news. It brings to almost 3,400 the number of people employed by Webhelp TSC in Scotland and means economic boosts in Glasgow, Larbert and Kilmarnock.
"In particular, it offers our young people enormous opportunities. I know Webhelp are keen to target young people for a large number of these jobs in the hope they remain with the company for many years and are supported in their ambitions to learn and make progress.
"Webhelp TSC's commitment is the latest in a series of inward investments creating jobs in Scotland and provides further proof of the attractiveness of Scotland's workforce to foreign investors."
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