Moffat pilot turns to building own protecting tools right after shedding his job because of to coronavirus pandemic
A Moffat pilot who missing his position because of to the pandemic is now aiding to make private protective tools in the area.
Douglas Jones landed a job with Dumfriesshire company Alpha Solway which gained a government contract to provide PPE for NHS frontline personnel.
The 27-12 months-old was performing as a industrial airline pilot with Greek firm Aegean when the travel field collapsed.
Fearing he may be stranded in Athens, he booked a flight house to Scotland to remain with his dad in Moffat where by he grew up and, a couple weeks on, was instructed he had missing his aviation occupation.
But he has given that received work with Alpha Solway which has web sites in Annan and Dumfries.
The firm secured a £53m contract in September to give private protecting tools to NHS Scotland.
And to fulfil the get for 232 million surgical masks, 6 million respirator masks and two million visors, the corporation – aspect of the Globus Group – has been doing work in direction of nearly quadrupling its first 70-powerful workforce.
It has been a lifeline for men and women hit with redundancy across sectors hardest strike by the consequences of Covid-19.
Douglas, who turned a production operative with the organization in June, told the Conventional he feels “lucky” to have a new vocation immediately after the decline of his desire occupation in the skies.
He claimed: “Receiving an email from Aegean at the starting of the pandemic telling me I was out of a work was certainly gutting.
“It was designed even worse because all my friends in the sector ended up in the same position with other companies.”
Soon after attaining a business pilot’s licence, Douglas was primarily based in Berlin with Easyjet just before landing a situation with Aegean Airlines in Greece.
He additional: “The best matter for me is that proper now I am serving to a enterprise which is playing this kind of an significant position in battling Covid-19. There is a good workforce of individuals right here and we are struggling with everyday problems that hold me busy.”
Alpha Solway, which describes him as “a skilled engineer and dedicated worker”, has promoted him twice given that he joined the agency previous summer season.
Another sector to be strike by the pandemic has been catering and a mother and daughter from Annandale have also joined the Alpha Solway workforce right after shedding their employment previous yr.
Lynne Thompson, aged 44, was hit with a double blow when she was furloughed from her job as a catering assistant at The Devil’s Porridge Museum in Eastriggs and was pressured to give up her individual small business of creating rosettes for equestrian events.
Beginning as a creation operative at Alpha Solway, she has due to the fact been promoted a few periods and now oversees all admin-linked jobs from client assistance orders as a result of to generation, resources and warehousing.
She reported: “I actually love the doing the job atmosphere below. Considering the fact that starting, anyone has been pleasant and helpful on my journey so considerably. It has been a little bit manic at times, but this is a new undertaking for lots of.
“Being furloughed was a bit complicated at very first, for the reason that nobody realized what was going to come about. The museum experienced to close and all the gatherings and shows had to be cancelled so my rosette business ended also.
“I was only furloughed for about a 7 days before I noticed the advert for Alpha Solway. A week later on I was interviewed and started out functioning here two days afterwards. It was a little bit of a whirlwind, but I couldn’t be a lot more grateful.”
Heather explained: “I do love working along with my mum. She’s generally there if I have any thoughts about the task and I do sense definitely blessed that we have both equally managed to find this kind of a wonderful job throughout the pandemic. I would not want to go back again to what I was carrying out ahead of now.”
