Prime Minister John Key was on hand to formally open IBM's first New Zealand delivery centre, potentially creating up to 400 new jobs in the process.

Located at the Unitec Institute of Technology, an Auckland-based tertiary education provider, IBM says the centre will prepare students to work in the digital economy and provide businesses with access to new skills in mobile and analytics, and advanced technology.

Hoping to bring both full-time and part-time roles within the next two years, IBM says it;s investment will enable annual scholarship programmes and jointly developed guest lectures, mentoring, internship and graduate hire programmes.

The company is partnering with Westpac to deliver application development and management services including data management, JAVA development and business process modelling.

"This investment adds to IBM’s long history of collaborating with the tertiary sector to develop graduates with the right skills to work in today’s services oriented economy," says Jennifer Moxon, MD, IBM New Zealand.

"I am delighted that Westpac, a longstanding client, will be the first to experience the business benefits of the Delivery Centre at Unitec, while contributing to building new skills for New Zealand.”

Services will include human resources, finance and administration and customer relationship management as well as supply chain management and remote technical support.

"The new centre will create invaluable opportunities for talented students transitioning into their careers and we are pleased to be able to support it," says Jim Stabback, COO, Westpac New Zealand.

“The centre fits ideally with our Grow NZ programme, focused on encouraging investment for growth.

"This is a significant investment by Westpac that will help create jobs and grow the economy.”

The team, comprised of post-graduate and under-graduate computer science students and supervised by experienced IBM developers and managers, will be located in a secure facility at Unitec, with the five year contract representing additional IT capability for Westpac in New Zealand.

A central feature of the IBM - Unitec collaboration is the extended industry based ‘Earn As You Learn’ placements which will provide experience for students studying IT, business management and communications degrees.

"This initiative is an excellent example of collaboration between business and tertiary education and will make a positive contribution to the economic prosperity of our county," says Rick Ede, CEO, Unitec.

"Unitec students can now look forward to the opportunity of working with IBM, one of the world's leading business solutions companies, and other premier brands before they graduate.

"Companies like Westpac will benefit from access to a highly skilled and motivated workforce, and the broader NZ business community will ultimately benefit by being able to access job-ready graduates."