Rosyth shipyard is having to use 300 Filipino welders due to a skills shortage in Scotland, which is a national embarrassment, argues Herald columnist Alan Simpson.

Back in the day, when Glasgow was caked in grime such was the industrial activity in the city, young men would walk out of school on a Friday and into a good job in the shipyards on the Monday.

One such young man was Billy Connolly, who recalls his first day in a yard when he joined the wrong queue and ended up being a welder and not his preferred role of an engineer.

Being the Big Yin of course, the tale should be taken with a large pinch of salt but his telling of it in his own inimitable style is priceless.

But it was indeed true that there were opportunities aplenty for skilled workers in the city as the yards and steelworks helped construct one third of the world’s shipping.

Of course, most of the shipyards are no longer there, but those that do remain are doing particularly well and now employ thousands of skilled workers once again.

However, one of the country’s major naval yards has been forced to recruit hundreds of welders from the Philippines to plug significant gaps in skilled work.

At least 300 Filipino welders have been recruited at the Babcock-owned yard in Rosyth, Fife.

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