Thousands supported by PACE

A Scottish Government initiative is supporting more people to find work following redundancy, new figures confirm today.

From April 2014 until March 2015, the Partnership Action for Continuing Employment (PACE) has supported 12,161 individuals and 252 employers over 392 sites.

PACE is delivered by Skills Development Scotland in conjunction with other partners and provides guidance and support to help reduce the time people are out of work.

Speaking ahead of the latest PACE Partnership meeting that brings together 21 organisations with the Scottish Government to oversee a continuous improvement programme to enhance the operation of PACE Business Minister Fergus Ewing said:

“PACE is one of Scotland’s lesser known success stories. It provides real and practical support to people all over Scotland who have been made redundant or who are facing redundancy. That’s why the work of our PACE teams is so important in minimizing the time people who have been made redundant are out of work and helping them into further employment.

“This government is committed to doing all it can to support those affected by the prospect of redundancies. Early invention from employers agreeing to have PACE officials on site can mean that employees have the best chance of obtaining alternative employment.

“Unfortunately, since the start of the year we have seen and heard of too many companies who have had to let highly skilled and well trained employees go. As a government we have taken the lead and established the Energy Jobs Taskforce and more recently the Fife Taskforce.

“These taskforces work alongside the efforts of our initiative for responding to redundancy situations, PACE. Through providing skills development and employability support, PACE aims to minimise the time people affected by redundancy are out of work.

“I would like to assure any employer or employee that is worried about the prospect of being made redundant that the Scottish Government stands ready to help in any way we can and that is exactly what we will do.”