Training and employment agencies have met in Swansea to discuss ways of finding work for 435 Dewhirst clothing workers made redundant last week.

Managers at the Fforestfach factory were joined on Monday by Welsh Assembly officials, the Welsh Development Agency, Elwa, and Swansea County Council, to discuss how best to help the workers facing redundancy.

The firm supplies Marks & Spencer

It is understood that 50 jobs - long-term administrative posts - will remain at the site.

A detailed strategy will not be decided until the company finishes its discussions with union officials at the site.

It is understood that ELWa and the Employment Service will set up offices at the factory to give workers individual advice.

There are also retail developments in the pipeline at Fforestfach - Next and Argos will be opening stores there, and it may well be that some Dewhirst employees could find work there. Mike Rees, WDA business support manager in south west Wales, said that it was very unlikely that Dewhirst would change the decision to close the factory.

Cheaper sites

After the company confirmed the job losses, workers were told there no plans to offer them work elsewhere within the company.

Dewhirst makes trousers and skirts for UK high street chain Marks & Spencer, but has decided to move production to cheaper sites abroad.

The company said that high street prices were so cheap that the Fforestfach operation had been losing money for 18 months, and would close by August.

Dewhirst - the third largest manufacturing employer in the Swansea area - has laid off hundreds of workers at its Welsh plants in recent years.

Dai Lloyd is a GP in the plant's Fforestfach home

Three hundred jobs went in Ystalyfera when that factory closed in 1998.

A further 165 jobs were lost when the Lampeter plant shut last year.

The firm will now switch production to its factories in either Morocco, Turkey or Malaysia.

Some of those soon to be left jobless have said they are "devastated."

The firm has been hit by M&S's turbulent fortunes which, ironically, now appear to be on the up again.

'Tragedy'

In a statement issued on Thursday, Dewhirst blamed the move on a loss of profits due to "continued consumer pressure on prices".

Dewhirst's two other factories in Cardigan and Fishguard, which employ around 250 workers, will not be affected by the announcement.

UK Chancellor Gordon Brown told BBC Radio Wales that the loss of jobs was a "personal tragedy for those people affected".

But Plaid Cymru's health spokesman Dai Lloyd - a Fforestfach councillor - was critical of that response.

"Unlike south-east England, Wales cannot afford to lose such jobs until we are in a position to develop large scale high-tech companies," he said.

And he described the news from the company as a "hammer blow" for the community.

Director of Development for Swansea Council Craig Anderson said: "It is bitterly disappointing coming on the back of last year when we've seen a lot of growth in the local economy in many areas.

"Dewhirst has been caught in an international trend which is not really of their making.

"Production base costs are competitive - it is a tough business."

Dewhirst is entering a formal 90-day statutory consultation period with the union and the workers, a spokesman said.

Swansea councillors have also pledged to assist workers made redundant in the move back into employment.