SIX former SSI steelworkers are starting new jobs this week after being re-trained.

Wescott Coatings and Training Services put the redundant workers through than £27,000 worth of free training over the last fortnight which means they now have ICATS qualifications and practical spraying and blasting skills.

The new recruits will be closely supervised by senior industrial painters and will develop their skills over the coming months at a Wescott site in Scotland, giving them the chance to develop their careers within the sector.

Debbie Welsh, the firm's managing director, said: ‘We are so pleased to have been able to help. We had hoped to be able to offer the SSI guys a chance of employment and even more happy that we have jobs for them even before they have completed all of the courses.

"They will get a chance to complete the additional training at some point, which includes IRATA Rope Access, required for many of our jobs. However the main aim of the training was to make them employable and this has already been achieved in the training they have partaken in so far.”

On Saturday hundreds of workers who lost their jobs as a result of the closure of SSI's Redcar works attended a jobs fair at Middlesbrough FC's Riverside Stadium where employers, including Darlington-based mobile phone company EE, Nissan, BAE Systems and Middlesbrough College, were recruiting.