I was recently contacted by a grandfather from my constituency. His son is currently serving in Afghanistan and will be returning home later this year. He is scared that when his grandson gets home the only thing waiting for him will be the dole queue.
The Ministry of Defence is currently planning to cut the number of full-time service personnel by almost 20 per cent from 102,000 to just 82,000 – the lowest level since the Boer War. With 20,000 soldiers leaving the army and returning to the labour market the government needs to think long and hard about the support it will offer these brave men and women, who have risked their lives fighting for their country.
Members of our armed forces learn a range of skills to prepare them for the difficult and dangerous work that they do, these skills could be extremely valuable for civilian employers when leaving the army. Qualities like leadership, discipline, and the ability to make decisions under pressure could make former members of the armed forces well suited to roles in any sector of the economy.
At a time when jobs are so hard to find it will be difficult for 20,000 former soldiers suddenly entering the labour market. There is a real risk that these skills will be lost as veterans are unable to find work and fall into unemployment.
Professor Hew Strachan wrote about the difficulty service personnel have when returning to civilian life in his report on the Military Covenant. Although soldiers learn valuable skills through their work, often the institutionalised nature of the military can make other tasks more difficult after leaving. Strachan suggests greater support is needed for veterans returning to the Labour market as well as continued educational opportunities throughout their army career. He also proposes a Passport to Work, which would see the government contribute to former service personnel’s wages or training for the first six months of their contract.
Labour recently launched the Veterans Interview Programme in which large private sector employers, like John Lewis, O2 and Centrica, have voluntarily agreed to guarantee interviews to all former members of the armed forces who apply for jobs within their organisations. This is a fantastic scheme that will benefit both businesses and veterans, allowing them to put the skills and values they have learnt to use in the commercial sector.
Former service personnel have so much to offer employers, and the public sector could benefit too. I recently called on the prime minister to extend Labour’s VIP to guarantee interviews to service personnel applying to jobs in the public sector. When I raised this with the prime minister at PMQs last week I got a really thin response.
After years of risking their lives to keep us safe former members of the forces should be able to expect secure employment. The government needs to do more to get former soldiers back into work, but so far Labour is leading the charge.
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Nick Smith MP is a member of the public accounts committee. He tweets @BlaenauGwentMP
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“qualities like leadership, discipline and the ability to make decisions under pressure” could indeed make ex forces personnel employable in any sector of the economy. However, employers would do well to ensure that their companies embrace the tenets of teamwork, camaraderie and pride if they wish to retain their ex-forces employees.
Chris Chambers
Why can’t employers decide what valuable skills are picked up from experiences, without government laws/culture needing to decide for them? Yes it is true that armed forces personnel pick up some of the skills that you mention. But why on Earth do they need a law telling them that?