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Ford set to hire Holden workers

Ford is set to hire sacked Holden engineers to develop Chinese cars.

Ford is planning to hire sacked workers from its arch rival Holden to help it develop new cars for China.

Ford plans to hire 150 sacked Holden engineers in the coming months to develop new cars for China.

Last Friday Holden sacked the first of 200 Melbourne-based engineers that it will let go before Christmas, ahead of a further 400 engineering job losses before Holden closes its factory in 2017.

The switch means that Ford will become by far the largest employer of automotive engineers in Australia, taking its vehicle development workforce from about 1050 to 1200, roughly 10 times more than Holden.

Ford's engineering boss for the Asia-Pacific region, ex-pat Australian Trevor Worthington, who visited Australia from China this week to launch the last ever Falcon, said he would be "happy" to help Holden's sacked engineers.

We will get the right people for the right job

When asked if Ford would hire engineers from arch enemy Holden Mr Worthington said: "Why not?"

He said Australian engineers were trained to "world class" standards, Ford was about to ramp up extra work for foreign vehicles, and there is ready supply of ex-Holden workers.

"The growth in our Australian engineering workforce over the next six to eight months … will be about 150 engineers," he said.

Ford was not clear about which areas of expertise it would focus on but Mr Worthington said "we will get the right people for the right job".

"Whether it's chassis engineers, powertrain engineers, calibration engineers, instrument engineers … the work is cyclical," said Mr Worthington, who expects the engineering workforce to remain stable at about 1200 employees "for the foreseeable future".

Holden will have fewer than 150 engineers remaining once its factory closes in 2017, while Toyota is expected to have fewer than half that again.