TWELVE talented young people were told 'you're hired' as the award winning-personal development programme The Recruit ended for 2012.

At a glittering awards ceremony held at Greenock Town Hall on Friday night, Megan Duffy from Gourock was announced as the overall winner of the enterprise competition.

Megan receives a position paying �14,000 with T-Mobile, plus a course of driving lessons.

A further 11 recruits also secured jobs with a number of local organisations and businesses, including five more roles at T-Mobile, as well as jobs at Inverclyde Council, HP, ISS and three at the RBS Mortgage Centre.

This was a great surprise to The Recruits who expected seven jobs in total.

The successful candidates were selected based on their performance, attitude, potential, personal drive, determination and employability skills throughout the programme of Recruit activities, which saw 35 fifth and sixth year pupils from across Inverclyde devote up to 500 hours of their time to take part in a number of Apprentice-style challenges.

They also recruits received talks, tasks and lessons from a range of businesses based in the area, including T-Mobile, RBS, Kip Marina, Stepwell (Cookschool & Fresh), Texas Instruments, Dominos Pizza and IBM.

Councillor Terry Loughran, convener of education for Inverclyde Council, said: "Friday night was the culmination of five months of hard work, commitment and sheer determination, which has been demonstrated by all of the recruits who have taken part.

"The process has seen the candidates develop both personally and professionally, standing them in good stead for their future, as they take away valuable life and business skills, increasingly important in the current, competitive job market.

"I would like to congratulate the recruits for their outstanding efforts and wish them all the best for their future careers."

* The full list of successful candidates is: Megan Duffy, Gourock (T-Mobile/Everything Everywhere), Lauren McDonald, Greenock (Royal Bank of Scotland), Shannon Howie, Inverkip (Inverclyde Council community learning and development), Adrian Loughlin, Gourock (Hewlett Packard), Vikki Warnock, Gourock (T-Mobile/Everything Everywhere), Gemma McAllister, Port Glasgow (Royal Bank of Scotland), Callum Anderson, Port Glasgow (ISS), Rebecca McAnally, Port Glasgow (T-Mobile/Everything Everywhere), Gemma Cuffe, Greenock (T-Mobile/Everything Everywhere), Calvin Connaghan, Gourock (Royal Bank of Scotland), Eva Carroll, Gourock (T-Mobile/Everything Everywhere), Mauro Mazzoni, Inverkip (T-Mobile/Everything Everywhere).