Lifeline Offered to Ferguson Shipyard Apprentices

Apprentices at the last remaining shipyard on the River Clyde which has gone bust were thrown a lifeline.

The five were among 70 workers who were told on Friday that Ferguson Shipbuilders 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 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 program – we spend a lot of time and money ensuring our apprentices get the best training and on-the-job experience.

“They were very positive about accepting a job and continuing their apprenticeship with Garvel Clyde/Dales Group. We will get confirmation in the coming days if they are going to start with us and we sincerely hope they do.

“We are delighted we can offer these hard-working and bright young people a lifeline when the future of Fergusons is in doubt.

“Garvel Clyde is the only dry dock and ship repair facility in the area, and we carry out a lot of work repairing ferries for Calmac there, so we hope this work will continue to grow so we can help these new apprentices be part of – and take great pride in - the Scottish ship repair industry.”

In recent years, Ferguson Shipyard completed work to deliver two sea-going roll-on roll-off vehicle and passenger diesel-electric hybrid ferries for CalMac. The yard also completed work for Babcock related to the contracts for two huge Royal Navy aircraft carriers.

Along with the jobs offered to the Fergusons workers and the five apprentices starting next week, there are already three people doing apprenticeships within Dales Group. There are three at Garvel, an additional 11 in Aberdeen, and eight in Edinburgh all at various stages of their four-year apprenticeship.

The existing apprentices at the firm are in their third year and include two steelworkers and an engineer. The 2014 starts include two steelworkers, two engineers and one machinist. The Ferguson apprentices, who are all in their third year, include three steelworkers, one engineer, and one pipefitter.

Dales Group, which provides ship repair for clients around the world and fabrication for the oil and gas and energy industries along with quality service, fast turnaround, precision engineering, has about 220 employees with 40 of those at Garvel increasing to about 80 when the yard is busy.

The group operates six drydocks, six repair and conversion yards and one wet dock, at six key locations around Scotland’s coastlines.