A DRIVE to recruit hundreds of people for an organisation which will become one of a North-East town's biggest employers is under way.

The Student Loans Company (SLC) is to take on 500 employees when it moves to premises in Darlington.

The office, which is being built at business park Lingfield Point, will open in May and the SLC is looking to take on and train the first wave of staff between now and March.

The company will recruit continuously until the end of the year, aiming to take on more than 40 people a month.

The jobs created will be in customer services, application processing, administration and management.

The 500 jobs will bring the total number of people employed by the SLC in Darlington to 650, making it one of the biggest employers in the area.

The company's deputy chief executive, Derek Ross, said: "We are creating a national centre of excellence in Darlington. We are looking to take on and train the first batch of recruits over the next six months, but this is just the start of a relationship between SLC and Darlington and the Tees Valley.

"We have done a fair bit of research into the local labour market, and we know the skills we need are there. We believe we can attract the right people with the right skills."