The employment rate of Service personnel who have left the UK armed forces, six months after leaving service, has reached a record high of 89% according to new data published for 2022/2023 by the Department of Defence Statistics Health within the Ministry of Defence, for resettlement provided by the Career Transition Partnership (CTP).
The data recorded by Defence Statistics reported a lower rate of economically inactive Service leavers – reducing from 9% to 7%, of which the majority (40%) are recorded as having gone into education, training, or volunteering, with 26% not seeking employment, and 12% going into retirement.
The remaining 22% were split across a variety of reasons; medically unfit to work, or they made the choice to have a career break, to care for family, travel, re-join the military, or were awaiting a visa/citizenship, or chose not to declare their reason.
CTP, in partnership with Right Management, has to date helped more than 310,000 Service leavers make their move into civilian life over the past 25 years, supporting thousands of organisations with the recruitment of ex-military personnel.
Adrian Peters, Operations Director, CTP, said: “Making the transition back to life on ‘Civvy Street’ can be a daunting experience for military personnel and our programmes exist to give them the training, guidance, and tools to upskill, make informed decisions and better understand what they offer future employers if that’s their chosen pathway.
“I’m incredibly proud of the positive outcomes reported by Defence Statistics, which demonstrates the high quality of support CTP provides. Another example of this is that 99.5% of Service leavers who attended our Career Transition Workshops say they would recommend CTP to other Service leavers.”
CTP contacts 100% of Service leavers post discharge and due to increased efforts between 2022-2023, the outcomes of Service leavers known by the CTP, increased by almost 14%.
Peters adds: “Service leavers offer transferable skills and experience which is invaluable for thousands of organisations and is especially important just now, with 80% of UK businesses reporting challenges in finding the right talent. We know from those organisations, how much value is placed on the Armed Forces pool of talent, and those individuals bring their own exceptional skills and characteristics into the UK workforce.”