How Swindon Can Bounce Back From The Honda Closure

It has recently been confirmed that Honda will be closing their Factory in Swindon. 

The 370-acre site, which was first acquired by Honda in 1985, is set to finally close on July 2021 and was Honda’s only factory in Europe. This will mean over 3,500 of the firm's current employees face the prospect of unemployment, and there will likely be more knock-on effects for Swindon itself. 

The decision has been made as a result of Honda’s plan to restructure their global manufacturing network, focusing more on electric cars. 

However, Honda are not the only car manufacturer in the UK to cut jobs or shut down their site. Last year, Jaguar’s Land Rover made the decision to cut 500 jobs from their Harewood site, whilst Ford announce plans to shut-down it’s Bridgend site in South-Wales, with 1,700 jobs set to be cut and thousands more to be indirectly impacted by the changes. 

Nigel Berry, Team Leader at the Honda factory in Swindon, feels the knock-on effects will be felt heavily by the area. 

“The impact to Swindon will be massive, there is no other industry similar that’s within proximity. Many will have to retrain as the skills they have currently won’t be transferable”. He Said. 

These job cuts and closures come at a worrying time for the UK economy, with predictions that pubs and restaurants will be forced to close for the second time this year it's certainly a difficult period for the UK’s job market. 

The economic impact of Covid-19 has been so large in fact, that it’s predicted almost half a million redundancies could be made before the end of the year. This is a worrying prediction with Christmas only a couple months away now. 

So how are people readying themselves for redundancies? And how can you set yourself apart from other candidates in what will be a highly populated application pool? 

I spoke to Prakash Soni, 22, a recent graduate from Swindon. He felt the pressure of getting a job straight out of university had increased with the amount of redundancies that have been predicted. 

“I feel a lot more time-restricted to find a job now the Honda factory is set to shut. I am desperate to find a job before July because I know on top of the redundancies from Covid-19, another 3500 people in my area will be looking for new jobs around Swindon.” He said. 

He also felt he needed to find a way to set himself apart from other candidates looking for similar jobs. 

“I feel like people at Honda will be more employable than me because they have transferable skills and a lot more work experience than I currently have. I am trying to look into ways that I can set myself from more experienced candidates.” He added. 

Well, one-way Honda has been preparing their workers for the competitive job market is through upskilling. Honda have encouraged their employees to take up the opportunity of retraining for new roles and industries, while they’ve also advised their current workers to start taking free online qualifications. Online qualifications are a great way to improve your skill set, learn new skills for a range of industries and can provide a range of new employment opportunities.

With the job market set to be flooded with thousands of new people, taking an online qualification could be the best way to set you apart from the competition. Not only does it provide employers with evidence that you remained proactive whilst job hunting, but it also helps to improve your knowledge and understanding for industries you may have already worked in such as nursing, education and IT. 

Here at The AIM Group we want to support anyone whose job is at risk. Our free online level two vocational qualifications can be used to help you fulfil your full potential, with a range of different topics from Mental Health Awareness to IT user skills. We hope by offering these free online courses we can support those who are facing redundancy by giving them a better chance of employment.