WHILE those made redundant now will find it more difficult to get bank loans to set up their own businesses, given the crisis in the credit markets, the blow of sudden unemployment is being softened by a burgeoning support industry that wasn’t there in the 1990s.

Keystar Training, for example, is one of a number of firms offering workers who are made redundant one-to-one courses where they can improve their interviewing skills in role plays with actors hired from the West End.

Bobbie Lee, managing director of Keystar Training, said: “We monitor everything from their body language to the way they dress, then give them feedback. Many of the people we see haven’t been unemployed for a long time, so they need to work on their presentation skills before they go to real interviews.”