A FUNDING PACKAGE aimed at helping those losing their jobs as a result of the dramatic fall in oil prices is being welcomed by Moray’s MP.
Angus Robertson says the £12million announced this week by the Scottish First Minister has the capacity to help many of his constituents who are now seeking new careers away from the Oil and Gas production industry.
This week the Scottish Government revealed the ‘Transition Training Fund’ aimed at helping to maintain the highly skilled energy workforce by offering individual grants that support retraining through Further Education.
The new fund will augment the work of the Scottish Government’s Energy Jobs Taskforce, which is already providing support through the PACE process and other measures such as the Adopt an Apprentice initiative.
Mr Robertson said “I welcome this funding and the opportunities it creates for those affected. The redundancies in this industry are extremely concerning, and I am optimistic that this will help alleviate some of those losses.
“The issues facing the oil industry are complex and we are pressing the UK Government to help in areas where high taxation is curtailing exploration activity – that is foolhardy and will reduce oil taxation returns in the longer term.
“In Government in Scotland the SNP are working hard with the powers available to Scotland to help mitigate these problems through schemes like that announced by Nicola Sturgeon.
“There will undoubtedly be opportunities for skills transfer in areas such as offshore renewables as major schemes such as windfarms in the Moray Firth progress and we need to do all we can to avoid losing highly skilled workers.”