This week in the Scottish Parliament I raised the recently announced job losses at Havelock Europa. The Kirkcaldy based company have announced that they would be cutting their staff by 10% which would see the loss of 50 jobs.

The job losses are another major blow to Kirkcaldy and the wider Fife economy, coming on the back of significant losses at major employers such as Tullis Russell, BiFab and Tesco.

Following the closure of Tullis Russell the Scottish Government has been working with Fife Council and set up a taskforce to help retrain and find employment for workers who were laid off.

However due to continued job losses elsewhere we must now look into branching this out to benefit all workers within the wider Fife economy that have jobs under threat.

I am pleased that it has been confirmed by Havelock Europa that their apprentices in Kirkcaldy will not be affected by job losses. It is vital that young people in Fife are given the opportunity to train and gain the skills needed to succeed.

You can watch my questions to the Business Minister during Finance Questions on the video below (from 4min 10 secs in), or read the official report here.