Prometric Reaches 100 High-Skill Jobs in Dundalk…

Dundalk, Ireland (4 June 2013) — Minister of State for New Era, Fergus O’Dowd, T.D., today joined Prometric CEO Michael Brannick and IDA Ireland CEO, Barry O’Leary to announce a major milestone for the U.S. multi-national. Prometric has now reached an employment headcount of 100 in Dundalk, with the addition of 24 skilled IT jobs. Prometric’s Dundalk operation is a major gateway for export work, bringing revenue in from some of the world’s most recognisable companies, organisations and Governments; supporting a business that operates in more than 160 countries and 20 hours of a global workday.

• This is supported by the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation through IDA Ireland.
• Across Ireland, Prometric has more than 140 employees, with 30 open positions.
• Prometric operates in Dundalk, Dublin, and has test sites available in all 26 Irish counties.

Welcoming today’s news, Minister of State for NewEra, Fergus O’Dowd T.D. stated, “I wish to congratulate Prometric on reaching 100 highly-skilled jobs in their Louth base a year ahead of schedule.”

“Prometric is a perfect example of a company that follows the sun, and can deal with the West Coast of the United States as easily at it communicates with Asia because of Ireland’s unique geographic location.”

“The fact that this IDA Ireland-sourced U.S.-based company is flourishing here, is thanks in no small part to the available skill base locally in Louth, and the determination on behalf of the State to position Ireland as a place to do business effectively.”

Test development professionals in Dundalk work with the RSA to develop new and revised exams for professional drivers. They publish new exams for the Building Energy Rating Assessor (BER) programme on behalf of the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland. UK-based ARM Holdings partners with Prometric to develop exams used for certifying technology professionals who produce 35 per cent of all consumer digital devices in the world (more than 40 billion microchips). Other major clients reside in China, Dubai, Japan, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, the U.S. and many others. These are organisations fuelling global commerce and employment.

The exams Prometric delivers provide a means for people all over the world to become licensed physicians, architects, certified accountants and financial planners, K-12 teachers, attorneys, credentialed project managers, law enforcement officers, software engineers and many other accredited and distinguished professionals. Prometric exams also offer aspiring graduate students access to the world’s most acclaimed universities.

Michael Brannick, President and CEO of Prometric said “As a company, our primary
purpose is to develop, deliver and produce test results for people to fairly demonstrate their knowledge. This is no small responsibility, and our employees in Ireland are part of our collective global business. Together, we provide a valid, secure and accurate measure of success or failure for millions of people per year.”

“Minister O’Dowd, Mr. O’Leary, the Irish government, IDA Ireland and our close network of
friends in the community have supported our vision for bringing a world-class business and state-of-the-art facility to Dundalk and County Louth from day one. Their support has helped us fully reach our jobs commitment from a rich, local and regional talent pool. We are pleased with our results to date, and look forward to continuing our success and our engagement within our community.”

IDA Ireland, CEO, Barry O’Leary said, “Prometric’s rapid growth in Dundalk further endorses
Ireland’s credentials as key location for the business services sector. Prometric has a growing customer base and many high profile customers operating in global markets. I would like to offer the on-going support of IDA Ireland as Prometric further develops its Irish operation.’’

IDA Ireland is Ireland’s inward investment promotion agency and played a key role attracting Prometric to Ireland and Dundalk. Prometric’s 100 jobs milestone highlights the ongoing commitment of IDA to attract and support foreign direct investment. Ireland is location of choice for a large number of Business Services Companies due to high quality IT, financial and HR skills. IDA Ireland continues to attract shared services operations to serve European and global markets as well as more sophisticated and diverse regional headquarters’ operations from these companies.

Prometric, in November 2011, announced that it would bring 100 jobs to Dundalk by 2014, as part of its global test development and delivery operations business. On June 7, 2012, Prometric officially opened its Global Operations Centre, in Dundalk’s Finnabair Business & Technology Park, and announced it had a workforce of 52 employees within just six months of completing its €800,000, state-of-the-art facility. Roles include executive leadership, test publishing, business development, operations, software engineering, business and systems analysis, project management, human resources, finance, marketing and graphic design and accounting. A list of available positions can be found at the end of this release.

Prometric’s ties to Ireland run deeper than new jobs. The company is a corporate partner to Junior Achievement Ireland, contributing financially and placing employee volunteers in Dundalk classrooms where they serve as student mentors. Prometric also sponsors the Dundalk Táin Festival, organised annually by the town council and Town Centre Commercial Manager office. DkIT and Prometric benefit from a close partnership, exchanging innovative resources and best practices. Some initiatives include DkIT internships and an on-campus learning demonstration project that uses Prometric’s new cloud-based MyItemWriterTM technology.

Recently, Prometric’s Vice President of Test Development Operations, Holly Dance, was appointed to the Dundalk Chamber of Commerce as Council Vice President, a first for an American company and for any foreign direct investment firm.

About Prometric
Prometric, a wholly-owned subsidiary of ETS, is a trusted provider of technology-enabled testing and assessment. Committed to a set of values that get the right test to the right location at the right time to the right test taker, Prometric supports candidates worldwide who take close to 10 million tests with Prometric each year. Through innovation, workflow automation and standardisation, Prometric advances test development and delivery solutions that are better, faster and at less cost. Prometric delivers tests flexibly via the Web or by utilizing a robust network of more than 8,000 test centers in more than 160 countries on behalf of more than 400 clients in the academic, financial, government, healthcare, professional, corporate and information technology markets..

For more information, please visit www.prometric.com.

Media Contacts:
Kevin Patrick Kane, [email protected]