Pathfinder International Magazine – the leading UK Military Resettlement Magazine

Category: Careers

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  • UK’s largest Armed Forces community event of its kind

    UK’s largest Armed Forces community event of its kind

    The next annual community movement coming-together – The National Transition Event (NTE) – is on Monday 24th February 2025 at Silverstone Conference Centre & Circuit – be there!

    NTE’s aim is to support Service Leavers, Veterans, Reservists, Cadets and their families. With the iconic GP circuit as a backdrop, it continues to deliver year-on-year a unique and engaging experience that is always evolving. The event is backed by industry, the third sector, the Ministry of Defence, and the Office for Veterans’ Affairs, ensuring a wealth of resources and networking opportunities.

    REGISTER TO ATTEND

     

     

    NTE offers a unique opportunity for the Armed Forces community to connect with companies who value their skills and experiences. This event is not a traditional employment fair; it’s a chance for meaningful engagement with businesses that understand the transition from military to civilian life. Attendees can gain first hand insights from ex-military employees, receive tailored advice, and explore a variety of career opportunities. It’s an event that recognises the potential of the Armed Forces via the creation of ‘a community of communities’.

    LEARN MORE HERE

     

     

  • Memoir Day – Open to all in the military community 

    Memoir Day – Open to all in the military community 

    This special event on 8 February is for anyone connected to the military, whether serving, reservist, veteran, or spouse/partner/family member.

    The aim of the day is to support those who have thought about writing a memoir, and those who have already started reflecting and writing about their interesting military life.

    Whether someone has served and lived through politically significant times, at home or internationally, or picked up the domestic consequences and dealt with life at home, all these stories are worth recording and holding as memoir.

    How was it living abroad during a time when communication home was limited to letters or blueys? How did the children manage long separations? How was leaving the military and adapting civilian life? Have stories been inherited that need to be captured before they are forgotten?

    Alison Baverstock MBE, event chair, commented:

    “I often wish I’d asked my father more about his military service during the Second World War. By the time I thought about it, it was too late. As I married a soldier, knowing how the experience was for him would have been really interesting.”

    Speakers are published authors and specialists in publishing and will talk about their own writing challenges and offer practical advice. They are:

    · Professor Alison Baverstock, author and founder of Reading Force

    · General Lord David Richards, former Chief of the Defence Staff and author of ‘Taking Command’ (Headline, 2014)

    · Patrick Hennessey, author of ‘The Junior Officers’ Reading Club: Killing Time and Fighting Wars’ (Penguin, 2011)

    · Bee Kenchington, author of ‘HMS Hood’ (Arcturus Press, 2004), a memoir about her brother using inherited letters from various parties (recorded contribution)

    · Alison Hill, author of ‘Pauline Gower, Pioneering Leader of the Spitfire Women’ (The History Press, 2022)

    · Tom Martin, author of ‘Falklands Gunner’ (Pen & Sword, 2017)

    · Charles Hewitt, CEO of Pen & Sword Publishers

    · Matilda Greig, National Army Museum: The History of Memoir Writing

    · Hannah Tame, National Army Museum: Understanding the Role of the Archivist

    · Dr Holly Greenland: Setting Your Writing Goals

    Tickets can be booked here

    Any queries about the day, please email: hattie@readingforce.org.uk

     

  • Gold Award for Reed

    Gold Award for Reed

    The Reed Group has recently been awarded the Gold Employer Recognition Scheme Award.

    The Reed Group has created an internal Armed Forces Veterans and Reservists Group (AFVR), a Group-wide community for Armed Forces/ex-Armed Forces staff to connect.

    The AFVR Group’s benefits include:

    • offering employees a support group of people with similar experiences
    • recreating a sense of camaraderie that they may be missing from their time in the forces
    • offering an optional buddy system for mentoring new staff, especially when this is a member’s first civilian job
    • sharing Armed Forces events, news and experiences

    Joanna Chapman, Reed Group business development manager, has said:

    “This shows our commitment to supporting Armed Forces personnel and ensuring they are not disadvantaged by their Service. We work continuously to create new and improve existing policies and initiatives that support those who have served and those who continue to serve, including guidance documents for our recruiting staff and job application support for those applying to work for Reed.”

    Their working group will also hold group-wide talks to raise awareness for employing the Armed Forces Community, the benefits they bring to employers, and how they can be supported. Reed opens group talks to external stakeholders to host and bring their expertise, and they welcome anyone who would be interested in attending.

    If you would like to participate, email the Reed Armed Forces Community at ArmedForces.Community@reed.com

     

  • ‘Veterans Work: Then and Now’ Report

    ‘Veterans Work: Then and Now’ Report

    Veterans Work has produced a new report that celebrates the positive progress in veteran employment in the last decade, while highlighting the challenges veterans still face when looking for work.

    There has been a huge shift in the narrative around veterans over the last ten years, to a recognition that veterans possess key attributes and in-demand skills that make them an important national resource for UK business.

    The world of work has changed dramatically, and veterans are better placed than ever to fill crucial skills gaps and provide resilience.

    Veterans Work has produced a new report that examines how far we have come and what work there is still to do.

    Veterans Work: Then & Now report takes stock and celebrates positive progress that has been made in the veteran employment space in the last decade. It also shines a light on the remaining challenges veterans face when looking for civilian work, and further improvements that could be made.

    The report involved surveying over 900 veterans and 500 employers in the UK – both employers who engaged in veteran recognition and employment schemes, and employers with no scheme in place.

    Read the report here

     

     

  • MOD gender pay gap reports 2024

    MOD gender pay gap reports 2024

    A report outlining the MOD’s gender pay gap and bonus pay gap figures for MOD Civil Servants (including MOD agencies).

    In 2017, the government introduced world-leading legislation that made it statutory for organisations with 250 or more employees to report annually on their gender pay gap. Government departments are covered by the Equality Act 2010 (Specific Duties and Public Authorities) Regulations 2017 which came into force on 31 March 2017.

    These regulations underpin the Public-Sector Equality Duty and require the relevant organisations to publish their gender pay gap data annually by 30 March, including mean and median gender pay gaps; the mean and median gender bonus gaps; the proportion of men and women who received bonuses; and the proportions of male and female employees in each pay quartile.

    The gender pay gap shows the difference in the average pay between all men and women in a workforce. If a workforce has a particularly high gender pay gap, this can indicate there may be a number of issues to deal with, and the individual calculations may help to identify what those issues are.

    The gender pay gap is different to equal pay. Equal pay deals with the pay differences between men and women who carry out the same jobs, similar jobs or work of equal value. It is unlawful to pay people unequally because they are a man or a woman.

    The Ministry of Defence supports the fair treatment and reward of all staff irrespective of gender. The department is committed to developing a more inclusive culture within Defence and a diverse workforce at all levels.

    Read the report here

     

  • Gen Dit Network’s 2025 military and veterans networking event

    Gen Dit Network’s 2025 military and veterans networking event

    The Gen Dit Network is a military support group that offers service people and veterans professional advice, job opportunities and companionship.

    The network launched in 2022 and now has over 16,000 members. The Gen Dit has proven itself to be the go- to place for service people, leavers and veterans to find what they are looking for, whether that be camaraderie, professional advice, seeking a new role or building business.

    The community-led group has resulted in over 100 individuals directly securing new roles (that we know of).

    Gen Dit Network’s 2025 exhibitor event will take place on 29 March at the Ashton Gate Stadium, Bristol.

    Register for the event here

     

     

     

  • Enterprising Cadets Celebrated at London Stock Exchange Graduation

    Enterprising Cadets Celebrated at London Stock Exchange Graduation

    On 22nd November 2024, budding young entrepreneurs from the Cadet Forces were honoured at a graduation ceremony in the iconic setting of the London Stock Exchange on Paternoster Square.

    These inspiring young people – members of the Army Cadet Force and the Royal Air Force Air Cadets – had participated in the Cadets in Enterprise programme, delivered by X-Forces Enterprise (XFE), the leading provider of business support to the UK Armed Forces community.

    Over the course of a weekend in September, this group of future leaders opened their minds to learn about and embrace enterprise and entrepreneurship through hands-on group learning. This was followed, a few weeks later, by a Dragons’ Den-style pitch event, where the Cadets presented their business ideas to a panel of corporate partners from London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG), NatWest, Cisco, Pets at Home, and Reed in Partnership.

    The graduation event was attended by senior leaders from Defence, education, and business, providing the Cadets with access to role models who inspired them and helped instil the belief that they, too, could be successful in their chosen fields.

    Ren Kapur MBE, CEO and Founder of XFE, explained the ethos behind the Cadets in Enterprise programme:

    “I am deeply passionate about introducing entrepreneurship and enterprise skills to young people, firmly believing that these skills will empower and embolden them, enhancing the trajectory of their development. Since its inception, XFE has led the way in providing enterprise training and support to the UK Armed Forces community – including service leavers, reservists, veterans, and their families.

    “Extending this mission to Cadets in a bespoke format is essential to us, with this being the fourth successful Cadets in Enterprise programme and our second graduation at LSEG. We are immensely proud to witness these young people not just succeed, but thrive, and we are deeply grateful for the ongoing commitment of our partners across Government, Business, and Academia in supporting Cadets in Enterprise and shaping the success of our future leaders.”

    As hosts of the graduation, LSEG arranged for the Cadets to be part of the day’s market closing ceremony – a unique experience and a powerful motivator for these ambitious young people. James Eaton, the Veterans Network lead at LSEG, commented:

    “LSEG is proud to sponsor the Enterprise For Life course for Cadet Forces, which fully aligns with our community support goals – providing opportunities for education, employment, and enterprise. We are delighted to host a reception for these amazing young people and potential future entrepreneurs. Ren Kapur and her team at XFE are helping people take their first entrepreneurial steps with confidence through practical support and guidance.

    “These valuable life skills are vital to the economic health of society, and it’s important that young people have the chance to develop them. On behalf of LSEG, I congratulate each cadet for their trail-blazing achievement and wish them well for their next steps in life.”

    The event also recognised London-based Cadets who provided a Guard of Honour to the Soldiering On Awards on 16th October, with certificates of thanks presented by XFE and LSEG.

     

  • Launching the Soldiering On Academy and Ensuring Nobody is Left Behind

    Launching the Soldiering On Academy and Ensuring Nobody is Left Behind

    I’m proud to be joining The Soldiering On Academy, which was launched at the 2024 Soldiering On Awards as a beacon of support, purpose, and hope for our Armed Forces community, a place for those who’ve served and who now seek that extra hand in building a future worth looking forward to.

    This isn’t just another academy; it’s a commitment, carefully built on the remarkable success of past work supporting our military personnel in settling into civilian life. Those successes reflect stories of lives transformed, careers rebuilt, and confidence renewed. We’ve seen it, we know it works, and now we’re taking it even further.

    Our first course in spring 2025 will provide dedicated time and space for Wounded, Injured and Sick (WIS) veterans to gain clarity on the options and opportunities available to them. Through the power of enterprise skills, we will enable individuals to develop the knowledge and understanding to determine if self-employment, employment, or further learning is the right option for them.

    A pivotal moment in the Academy’s story came at this year’s Soldiering On Awards, when the community gathered to celebrate, recognise and support. Amid the stories of courage and dedication, the event also raised all the funds needed to kick-start the Academy’s first programme. This incredible generosity stands as a testament to the strength and unity of the military family and a powerful reminder that the mission of the Soldiering On Academy is both shared and cherished. As David Richmond CBE remarked: “When the bullets stop, the need doesn’t go away“ and this Academy is here to meet that need long after service ends.

    For the last 10 years I have been fortunate enough to develop courses for the military community. During that time, I had the privilege of working closely with the team at X-Forces Enterprise who developed and ran the successful Business Xperience programme. Using that programme as the catalyst for the new Academy and giving it life once more is what drives me, as is the opportunity to once again work with Ren Kapur MBE and Martin Wing, who share my passion for ensuring that nobody is left behind.

    Whilst planning for the Academy, myself and Dougie Thomson reflected on working with individuals like John Geden and ultimately enabling him to bring his concept and business idea to life. Add to that the excitement of James Stott, The Magic Marine entertaining guests at the 2024 Soldiering On Awards and you can truly see ideas becoming reality. Welcoming previous delegates to share their experiences, individuals like James, Lee and Stu, would enable attendees to realise what is possible.

    A big thank you to the Office for Veterans Affairs and Anisha Worbs for supporting the thinking behind the academy, and to the Royal British Legion for partnering with us on the residential delivery of the programme – we look forward to exploring the referral pathway with you alongside our other military charity partners Forces Employment Charity, Poppy Factory, Combat Stress, ABF, Greenwich Hospital, RMA the Royal Marines Charity and many others who wish to join.

    In the future we’re looking forward to working with Helen Helliwell and supporting the Invictus Games. Here’s to building many more partnerships
    To our new supporters, we would love to discuss the ways in which you can play a role in delivering the Academy’s objectives.

    By Debbie Boundy, Soldiering On Academy Development Manager.

    Learn more here.

  • HRH The Princess Royal named Royal Patron of the Forces Employment Charity

    HRH The Princess Royal named Royal Patron of the Forces Employment Charity

    The Forces Employment Charity is proud to announce that Her Royal Highness The Princess Royal has graciously consented to become its Royal Patron.

    This new partnership reflects Her Royal Highness’s longstanding commitment to supporting veterans and their families and her dedication to charitable causes that enhance their employment opportunities, stability, and well-being.

    The Forces Employment Charity exists to provide life-long, life-changing support, job opportunities, and training to Service leavers, veterans, reservists and their families, irrespective of circumstances, rank, length of service, or reason for leaving.

    With the support of HRH The Princess Royal as Royal Patron, the charity anticipates an expanded reach and increased ability to raise awareness of the unique employment challenges faced by ex-service personnel and their families.

    Her Royal Highness’s support will bring national attention to these critical issues and strengthen the charity’s mission to provide the guidance and resources veterans need to thrive in their post-service careers.

    Alistair Halliday, Chief Executive of the Forces Employment Charity, expressed his gratitude, stating:

    “We are deeply honoured that HRH The Princess Royal has agreed to become our Royal Patron. Her unwavering dedication to our Armed Forces community will inspire and bolster our efforts to provide veterans with meaningful employment opportunities that honour their skills and sacrifices.”

    HRH The Princess Royal is widely respected for her extensive charitable work across multiple causes, particularly those involving the Armed Forces. Her Royal Highness’s role as Royal Patron will undoubtedly help further the Forces Employment Charity’s impact and ensure that veterans and their families receive the support they deserve during a pivotal stage in their lives.

    The Forces Employment Charity looks forward to working with HRH The Princess Royal to promote this vital cause and extend its support to more veterans across the UK.

     

  • Ministry of Defence Police Appoints Assistant Chief Constable

    Ministry of Defence Police Appoints Assistant Chief Constable

    The Ministry of Defence Police (MDP) has announced the appointment of Simon Dobinson into the role of Assistant Chief Constable, Territorial, Crime and Support.

    Simon has had a varied policing career split between Essex Police, the Metropolitan Police and Sussex and Surrey Police, serving in specialist and community-related policing roles at all levels.

    During his career Simon has specialised in hostage negotiation; public order policing; and, in armed policing, as a firearms officer and chief firearms instructor. He has held several firearms command roles.

    As a chief officer in the Metropolitan Police Service, Simon had responsibility for the security portfolio, delivering the Protect strand of the Governments CONTEST strategy and aviation security covering London airports. Simon also held organisation-wide responsibility for the Met’s estate and physical security strategy as well as being their lead for Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear (CBRN).

    In 2022 Simon transferred to the Sussex Police in a collaborative role with Surrey Police, with responsibility for specialist uniformed operational support across both forces involving armed policing, public order, dogs, roads policing, emergency planning and local resilience. Simon was Senior Responsible Officer for multiple programmes of work to improve operational effectiveness and efficiencies across both forces as well as being Chair of the Joint Force Legitimacy Board scrutinising use of police powers and Chair of county level road safety partnerships and the Sussex Local Resilience Forum.

    In addition to his core roles, for the past four years, Simon has been the National Police Chiefs’ Council portfolio lead for aviation security and airport policing, working with commercial, governmental and law enforcement partners to improve the coordination, communication and consistency of cross-service collaboration in relation to protective security and policing of airports and general aviation.

    Simon is a proud member of the Forward Institute which is a body made of up public, private and voluntary sector senior leaders who are passionate about pursuing the agenda of responsible leadership and the development of leaders both in and outside of policing. He is committed to driving change in organisational culture and has been a senior sponsor within the Met, Surrey and Sussex Police for leading work in support of improving inclusivity, diversity and equality.

    Simon holds a Master’s degree in Risk, Crisis and Resilience Management.

    Commenting on his new appointment, Simon said:

    “I am delighted to be joining the Ministry of Defence Police and am looking forward to meeting and working with new colleagues and partners. I hope to bring all my experience in being part of the collective mission to protect the nation’s defences and national infrastructure.”

    Chief Constable Melanie Dales said:

    “I am pleased to welcome Simon Dobinson as our new Assistant Chief Constable. He brings a breadth of knowledge from his previous forces which will help strengthen the MDP as we continue to build our capability to serve Defence, improve our culture, and reach our strategic goals. We are all very much looking forward to welcoming Simon to the Force.”