Lifeline for Ferguson apprentices
A local ship repair facility on the Clyde (UK) has stepped up and offered jobs to five of the Ferguson Shipbuilders apprentices who were recently made redundant.
The five were among 70 workers who were told on Friday that following Ferguson Shipbuilders being put into administration, they were being made redundant. The yard in Port Glasgow, which dates back to 1902, is the last commercial shipbuilder operating on the Clyde.
Representatives from Greenock-based Garvel Clyde, which is owned by Dales Group, met the youngsters on Monday and offered them jobs at its dry dock/ship repair facility.
Michael Milne, general manager and director of Aberdeen-based Dales Marine Services, said Fergusons going into liquidation was a sad day for the local economy: “It is such a shame when a large employer for an area which had staff who took such immense pride in their work and their connection to the Scottish shipbuilding industry, goes into liquidation,” he said.
“At Garvel Clyde and Dales Group, we really appreciate our loyal, long-serving staff and we wanted to help some of the Fergusons workers. We already have five new apprentices starting next week anyway so we’re ideally placed to help the Fergusons apprentices, as they would join our training programme – we spend a lot of time and money ensuring our apprentices get the best training and on-the-job experience.”
Dales Group operates six dry docks, six repair and conversion yards, and one wet dock, at six locations around Scotland’s coast.
The deadline for expressions of interest in the Ferguson company assets was 5pm on Thurdsay 21st August, and this deadline was announced on Wednesday the 20th. Commenting on the short window for expressions of interest, Blair Nimmo of administrators KPMG, told Maritime Journal yesterday: “We have been encouraged by the level of initial interest in, and support shown for, Ferguson Shipbuilders and we sense there is a desire to see its heritage maintained. By setting an early closing date we hope to establish whether it is possible to facilitate an early sale which may lead to the resumption of shipbuilding and ship repair activity at Port Glasgow in the short term.”
By Jake Frith
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