4 The impact of education on the resettlement
of Armed Forces personnel
72. Members of the Armed Forces will nearly always
need to pursue a further career after they leave the Armed Forces.
Many aspects of a career in the Armed Forces can help Service
leavers obtain civilian employment. In particular, education and
qualifications gained in the Armed Forces play an important role
in future prospects. Armed Forces personnel undertake many qualifications
during their time in the Armed Forces, see Table 10 below.
Table 10: Qualifications (excluding apprenticeships)
gained by Armed Forces personnel as a result of their Service
training
| Type of Qualification
| Academic year
|
| 2009-10
| 2010-11
| 2011-12
|
| Stand alone NVQ and other Level 2
| 13,282 | 17,204
| 11.195 |
| Stand alone NVQ and other Level 3
| 6,813 | 8,105
| 7,592 |
| Stand alone NVQ and other Level 4
| 2,670 | 2,519
| 2,249 |
| HND, Foundation Degrees and other level 5
| 4,774 | 5,113
| 3,582 |
| Honours Degrees and other level 6
| 543 | 779
| 915 |
| Postgraduate Degrees/Diplomas and Higher Degrees
| 596 | 218
| 1,578 |
| Total | 26,275
| 33,938 | 27,111
|
Source: Ministry of Defence[93]
The provision of civilian qualifications
73. We asked if the MoD was doing enough to enable
Service personnel to gain a civilian qualification related to
their military job. Admiral Williams replied:
I think, throughout the Service [...] that we
fight for and spend the money to accredit that which we do in
a military sense, and for a civilian. So flying a fast jet aeroplane,
for example—funding the civilian pilot's licence, which
seemed at one stage to me to be rather counter-intuitive. You
might imagine all the pilots would immediately leave, but actually
what it meant was that they felt that they were being invested
in and did not feel that there was green grass over the other
side that they really wanted to focus on. And it helped retention.
So that is the sort of thing—there is a good business reason
for doing a lot of this.[94]
Admiral Williams also said that the MoD tried to
get civilian accreditation for most of what they did and that
they would spend up to an additional 10 per cent on a military
training course to ensure that it led to civilian accreditation.
The Minister added that if Armed Forces personnel had done 80
per cent of a civilian qualification as part of their military
training then there were resources to enable them to get the civilian
qualification.[95]
74. We asked the Minister if there were areas where
it is not possible to get a civilian qualification, citing naval
medics as a possible example. He replied:
[...] We had a meeting yesterday where this was
on the agenda. Part of the issue is that being a paramedic in
the national health service is effectively a degree level qualification
now. People coming out of the Armed Forces who have very good
medical qualifications and who may have served in theatre, do
not necessarily have a degree, but would be extremely useful in
the back of an ambulance. We are therefore looking at ways to
try to provide some form of conversion to allow ex-medics to convert
to work, for instance, as paramedics in the ambulance service.
Some pilot programmes are under way actually at the moment, with
a couple of ambulance trusts. We are looking to learn lessons
from that to see how we could roll it out.[96]
The MoD further told us that there were three pilot
projects looking at paramedic qualifications in place or being
considered. These projects included:
- scoping a new course for new
trainees to close the gap between basic military medic training
and what is required to work in civilian ambulances;
- professional recognition for existing military
medics working with Cumbria University and Yorkshire Ambulance
Trust; and
- a possible further project working with West
Midlands and East England Ambulance Trust.[97]
75. Given that most Armed Forces personnel will
need to have at least one further career, we support the MoD's
policy of supporting the provision of civilian qualifications.
We recommend that the MoD identify the potential for more pilot
projects with civilian employers to develop the provision of civilian
qualifications and to ensure that vital skills paid for by the
MoD are not lost to the country. The MoD should tell us the results
of its pilot projects on the training of paramedics.
Resettlement prospects
76. We put to the MoD that people who join the Armed
Forces are not going to remain in Service until they are 65 years
old and will need to go on to a civilian working life. Admiral
Williams agreed and further said:
[...] We spend money and we take time and help
individuals get accredited, get the kind of qualifications they
want to get. There is money available to get civilian qualifications,
if you want to go and do something completely different.[98]
77. Armed Forces personnel are entitled to resettlement
advice and support when leaving the Services. The support is designed
to help personnel leaving the Armed Forces make a successful transition
to civilian employment in a suitable further career, which is
appropriate to their skills, knowledge, experience and aspirations.
The level of support is graduated based on the length of service
in the Armed Forces although all those who are medically discharged
are entitled to the full resettlement service. For example, those
who have served more than six years receive individual career
support such as CV writing, interview skill, training and a grant
towards other training plus time to attend training. The support
is provided by the Career Transition Partnership (CTP) which comprises
the MoD and recruitment specialists, Right Management.[99]
78. The number of personnel leaving the Armed Forces
who have used CTP support has increased from some 9,900 in 2009-10
to 14,900 in 2011-12.[100]
Current figures show that between 93 per cent and 95 per cent
of leavers receiving CTP resettlement support obtain employment
within six months of discharge.[101]
79. We asked if the skills of Armed Forces personnel
were readily transferable to civilian employment. Admiral Williams
replied:
[...] if I look at the engagement we have done
very recently as part of the FR20 [Future Reserve 2020] work and
the Green Paper, those employers who we have managed to engage
with appear to venerate and understand those skills that the military
brings to their offices. British Telecom, for example, cannot
have enough ex-military in its ranks of technicians. [...] If
I look at the career transition partnership, we seem to score
above 90 per cent in Service people getting a job. That seems
to me to be proof that, as long as we work on translating those
military skills and trying to put them in words that people will
understand, they are there. Of course, we take civilian qualifications
wherever we can.[102]
The Minister said that the education received by
Service personnel helped them in returning to civilian life. He
further said:
[...] We do not do a GCSE in character formally,
but I believe that we help to engender character in the Armed
Forces in a way that is attractive to employers.[103]
He added that former Armed Forces personnel did
well in employment:
If you have served for six years or more, when
you leave the forces you get a support package called the Career
Transition Partnership—the CTP—and the statistics
on this are quite impressive. If you leave the forces, you are
looking for work and you have been through the CTP programme,
90 per cent of those people get a job within six months, and 95
per cent of those people get a job within 12 months. We know that
because we do tracking surveys that follow their progress.[104]
80. Most Armed Forces personnel do well in gaining
employment after leaving the Services. Many employers find ex-Armed
Forces personnel very employable. In particular, employers value
their disciplined approach, determination and work ethic. We encourage
the MoD to continue its support for the resettlement of Armed
Forces personnel, particularly in this time of redundancies from
the Armed Forces.
93 Ev 18, table 5c Back
94
Q 45 Back
95
Q 65 Back
96
Q 64 Back
97
Ev 25-26 Back
98
Q 45 Back
99
Error! Bookmark not defined. Back
100
Ev 23 Back
101
Error! Bookmark not defined. Back
102
Q 39 Back
103
Q 66 Back
104
Q 66 Back
|
