IN the months before Honda withdrew its operations from the UK, the thousands of staff working in the Swindon factory and along the supply chain received help and advice for taking their next steps.

Much of the highly-skilled workforce at Honda had spent years or even decades at the plant and needed help to transition to a new job.

The Honda and Supply Chain Coordinating Steering Group led by Swindon Borough Council worked on a range of activities designed to help employees affected by the South Marston plant's closure.

The National Careers Service set up jobs fairs on the steering group's behalf which focused on employers with vacancies in the construction, logistics and manufacturing sectors around the county.

The service also worked on a functional skills training programme so that affected staff could learn important and useful abilities which would help them in whatever jobs and careers they moved into next.

The group worked closely with Honda to supplement its wide-ranging redundancy support for its employees as well as offering specific help for workers in other, smaller businesses who would be hit by the knock-on effect of the factory shutdown.

Advice and support for life after Honda was provided via virtual redundancy events in partnership with Swindon and Wiltshire Local Enterprise Partnership as well as other information and wellbeing events.