Final plans were yesterday put in place at the latest meeting of the Goodyear Taskforce to help those workers facing redundancy at the end of this month.

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The tyre manufacturer announced in June the phased closure of its Stafford Road plant with the loss of 330 jobs.

The first wave of workers leaving consists of those who have taken voluntary redundancy.

They will now be offered recruitment and retraining support, as well as careers guidance, interview skills preparation and pension planning as a single package of support from Taskforce partners such as the City of Wolverhampton Council's Skills and Employment staff, Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), Job Centre Plus, and City of Wolverhampton College.

A November Jobs Fair co-ordinated by Goodyear with help from Taskforce partners presented around 150 job opportunities for the departing Goodyear workers.

Councillor John Reynolds, City of Wolverhampton Council Cabinet Member for City Economy, said: "This is clearly a distressing time for the workers set to leave Goodyear.

"But the aim of the Taskforce from the beginning has been to ease their burden and help them get back into work as soon as possible.

"It is crucial there is a co-ordinated approach to providing a one stop shop for the workers affected to seek advice and support on their futures.

"There are reasons for optimism with a number of major employers moving to the area in recent times, such as Jaguar Land Rover and Wiggle.

"And last month's Jobs Fair shows there are a number of job opportunities in Wolverhampton which the highly skilled Goodyear workforce may be able to take on."

Production at the plant will end in January 2017, with more redundancies to be phased throughout next year, while further Jobs Fairs will be organised.

  • released: Friday 11 December, 2015