We’re passionate about supporting the Armed Forces community, not only through the work we do in our defence contracts but by partnering with organisations who are dedicated to providing opportunities for service leavers and veterans to fulfil their potential once they leave the Forces.
We’re particularly proud of our alliance with BuildForce, a programme supporting ex-services personnel transition into long term careers in construction and the built environment, with the added benefit of reducing skill gaps, labour shortages and lack of diversity in industry.
Analise Hopkins is one of our newly appointed Project Managers, having been referred to us by BuildForce last year. After a career in the Royal Engineers, Analise is now an invaluable member of our Central North team and is keen to share her experience of transitioning into the construction industry with other Service leavers.
Analise said “I agreed to take part in a recent BuildForce webinar aimed at encouraging more ex-Forces women into construction as I know it can be a daunting and unsettling period. These webinars helped me during my resettlement phase and I wanted to give something back and also help others who are at the beginning of their transition journey.”
Around 15 women joined the webinar and Analise was one of three female speakers who each explained how the skills gained in the military can bring real benefits to a construction site.
“I started off talking about my background, how I started in college as a joiner, then joined the Army and trained to be a bricklayer and combat engineer. I spoke about my tours and some of the projects I’d been involved in.
I shared my own experience of leaving the military and how I stayed motivated to finding a job during the pandemic, and explained how BuildForce helped with my CV, a mock interview and gave me a mentor. I then ran through the courses I had chosen to do with the grant money I was entitled to.
I ended with how I came to join Amey and the opportunities they have provided me with since I arrived. There were lots of questions from the participants and I hope they left the webinar with a renewed sense of self-belief and an understanding of how their military experiences can bring real benefits to a business like Amey.”
Over the last 12 months we’ve helped Service leavers adjust to life outside the military by attending recruitment events, assisting with CV writing, providing a mentoring service and identifying work placement opportunities with the aim of attracting their unique skills and knowledge into our business.
Amey currently has 32 mentors registered to the BuildForce programme, some of whom are ex-Forces themselves. In the last year, 63 Service leavers and veterans have benefited from their knowledge and support, providing an invaluable insight into the construction sector and helping them to achieve their goals.
So far, we’ve secured interviews with 30 BuildForce service leavers with 7 being successfully recruited into the business with more in the pipeline.
To listen to the webinar click here: www.facebook.com/BuildForce.org/videos
To learn more about BuildForce please visit: http://www.buildforce.org.uk
If you are from the Armed Forces community and would like information about careers at Amey please visit: http://www.amey.co.uk/letsjoinforces