04/09/2026
Every week this year I have read another headline about a UK factory winding down.
So it was good to read something different.
A new factory in Dumfries has just started hiring. VASO Global is opening a 60,000 square feet plant to make a world first recycled building panel, and the first people through the door are local.
Fifteen roles created so far. Up to seventy planned over the next five years. Green economy skills, real careers, right on people's doorstep.
What struck me most was who is leading it. Jim Patterson started out as an apprentice at ICI back in 1991. Thirty five years later he is standing outside a brand new plant, training a fresh team from scratch.
That is the part we do not talk about enough.
Manufacturing talent does not disappear when a site closes. It moves. Skills built over decades find a new home, and often they teach the next generation on the way.
The closures are real and they hurt. I never want to gloss over that. Behind every one is a person and a family working out what comes next.
Skilled people are becoming available at the very moment ambitious employers are building something new. The business that reaches out first, with real care rather than a job spec, tends to be the one that wins the talent.
That is the whole job for us at Pioneer Selection. Matching brilliant manufacturing and engineering people with the employers who will value them.
If you are hiring, or if you are one of the skilled people the headlines forgot, talk to my team at Pioneer Selection. We would love to help.
And if you know someone this could reach, please share it.
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