Employment for military veterans increased by 10% in the last year
New figures have been released by the Forces Employment Charity to mark Armed Forces Day 2024
Every year between around 15,000 people leave the armed forces and transition into civilian life.
Like all career changes, that move can present challenges.
Alistair Halliday, CEO of the Forces Employment Charity, says that although many veterans possess excellent transferrable skills, it can still be a difficult process:
“Although they've got a lot of great attributes, quite often they don't necessarily realise that when they're serving.”
“Also they don't have much knowledge or experience of civilian employers.”
“We provide support and awareness of things like how to write a CV, the sorts of things which are taken for granted and outside the military.”
In the last year, the Forces Employment charity supported 23,000 members of the military community, securing 13,246 work placements.
When compared to 11,994 the previous year, that shows a more than 10% year-on-year increase.
Alistair, who is based in Hampshire, knows all about making the transition to civilian life, having served for 33 years in the Royal Navy.
“I saw service all around the world and my last nine years was more in headquarters type roles in the Ministry of Defence.”
“So my initial transition was actually quite straightforward, although later on I then needed more help.”
“One thing is getting into the first role, then moving on to the next one, but everyone's experience is slightly different.”
“It's really important that we provide as much support as we can do for that initial bit, but then throughout life as well.”
Over the last five years, the number of employers actively looking to hire veterans has increased by over 20%.
Alistair says this success reflects the growing recognition of the value veterans bring to the workforce:
“There is an increasing number of employers who really get the value that people who've had armed forces experience can bring to their workplace.”
“The skills we talk about, resilience and sense of humour, the trainability, I think they are increasingly seeing that”
“I have to say another reason is there are an increasing number of skill shortages and there are vacancies across the UK, so it actually fits that there are there are opportunities which need to be filled.”
“We don't want people to leave the armed forces early, but when it's the right moment for them to decide to leave, we can do all the support we can to make sure they do transition as quickly as they can."
Employers can find our more about Forces Employment Charity by visiting their website at: Forces Employment Charity