Rover: Oz offer for Longbridge staff

MG Rover workers have been offered the chance to quit the doom and gloom of Birmingham in exchange for the sunnier skies of Australia.

The Australian Visa Bureau is appealing to skilled workers from the Longbridge plant to consider a move down under if they are made redundant.

Australia has a chronic shortage of skilled manual workers and under its points system skilled tradespeople are given priority processing.

AVB spokesperson Oonagh Baerveldt said engineers and those working as automotive electricians, fitters, fabricators, machinists, tool makers, motor mechanics, panel beaters, sheet metal workers, vehicle painters, welders and air conditioning mechanics were most in demand.

She said: 'Declining birth rates and ageing populations mean a future lack of skilled employees in the market place. Australia, Britain, Canada and New Zealand are fighting to attract the best and brightest immigrants.'

Baerveldt added: 'MG Rover workers who are under 45 and who meet the skills requirement are in an excellent position to move to Australia.'

Staff have been given a stay of execution for a week after the Government gave the company a £6.5m bridging loan to keep it afloat.

If a buyer can't be found it is likely the company will be broken up, leading to the possible loss of thousands of jobs.

Last year over 18,000 Brits emigrated to Australia and its government is currently reviewing its immigration numbers to attract an extra 20,000 people.