FORMER garment workers whose jobs were lost to cheaper Asian competition are having to learn new skills to find employment.
About 100 female machinists were made redundant last month when bosses at the Susie Radin factory, in Crook, transferred all the company's production to Hong Kong.
To help get the women back to work, Bishop Auckland College and the Wear Valley Development Agency are drawing up training courses for them.
Carol Laverick, of Wear Valley District Council's economic development department, said: "A few of the women have been offered jobs in the garment industry, but many more are finding they will have to retrain. We are supporting them in every way we can."
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