Sponsored by Exforplus
https://www.exforplus.org/
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24 June 21. Landmark organisations pledge to uphold Armed Forces Covenant. Organisations have affirmed their commitment to supporting personnel and veterans by signing the Armed Forces Covenant during Armed Forces Week. Landmark groups signing the Covenant this week include the House of Commons, while Amazon and Amazon Web Services (AWS) have reaffirmed their commitment as signatories. A promise and commitment to ensure personnel, veterans and their families are treated fairly, the Covenant is entering its 10th year and has now been signed by 7,000 businesses, both large and small.
Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said, “I’m delighted that the House of Commons and Amazon are showing their support for our service personnel by raising the flag and signing the Covenant. It is also welcome that Amazon and Amazon Web Services have reaffirmed their commitment to the Armed Forces Covenant as well.
This week is an annual opportunity for all of us to recognise the work our Armed Forces do, at home and abroad, to keep us safe.”
Minister for Defence People and Veterans Leo Docherty said, “The Armed Forces Covenant is a promise by the nation to ensure the fair treatment of those who are serving, veterans and their families. I’m delighted to see even more organisations – including Parliament – sign up to this pledge.
As the Covenant enters its 10th year, I am delighted to see some of our signatories – like Amazon and Amazon Web Services – reaffirming their commitment. With this continued support we will ensure it continues to attract as many signatories as possible.”
The Speaker of the House signed the Covenant on behalf of the Commons in a flag-raising event marking the start of Armed Forces Week, attended by Defence Secretary Ben Wallace, service personnel and cross-party MPs.
Defence Minister for the Armed Forces, James Heappey, will host a group of Amazon and AWS employees, including veterans, military spouses, reservists and apprentices in Whitehall today for the official signing of the Covenant by the companies. Amazon and AWS have pledged to support fair employment for the Armed Forces community and ensure their employment practices align with the unique needs of service families. Amazon and AWS have pledged to support meaningful employment for the Armed Forces community to meet the unique needs of service families.
Minister for the Armed Forces, James Heappey, with John Boumphrey, VP Country Manager UK for Amazon and Chris Hayman, UK Public Sector General Manager at Amazon Web Services, as both organisations sign the Armed Forces Covenant. MOD Crown Copyright.
The Covenant has had a positive influence on many areas in society, including education. For example, school admissions policies have been shaped to take into account the unique needs of service families who are relocating and £23m a year is given to schools where service children attend.
Healthcare is another area that has seen positive changes. Support to service families from the NHS has been greatly improved and 800 GP practices in England are now accredited as ‘veteran friendly’, meaning the best possible care and treatment is available at these practices to patients who have served in the Armed Forces.
The Armed Forces Covenant led to the introduction of the Forces Help to Buy Scheme, which has helped over 21,000 service personnel get on to the housing ladder. The scheme enables servicemen and servicewomen to borrow up to 50% of their salary, interest free, to buy their first home or move to another property on assignment, or as their family’s needs change.
The Government is committed to enshrining the Armed Forces Covenant into law through the Armed Forces Bill, which is currently being debated in Parliament. (Source: https://www.gov.uk/)
24 June 21. HireVue partners with SaluteMyJob to reduce barriers to employment for ex-military personnel. The partnership supports veterans and other members of the armed forces community transition to civilian work by enabling them to practice and sharpen their interview skills
HireVue, the global leader in video interviewing, assessments, chat and recruiting automation technology, has announced a new partnership with SaluteMyJob, to provide career support and guidance for ex-members of the UK Armed Forces, who often struggle to transition to civilian work and can find interview scenarios challenging. This is a particularly prominent issue for veterans, who entered the Armed Forces at a young age, often with little or no experience of civilian employment.
Former service men and women are usually highly skilled candidates, yet often struggle to move into the private sector due to a lack of direct industry experience or formal higher education. Compounded by a lack of interview experience, skills can often go unrecognised such as negotiation abilities, calmness under pressure, self discipline and a mission focused mentality.
As a HireVue ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) partner, SaluteMyJob can now provide its network of candidates with access to HireVue’s interview and assessment platform, enabling them to practice with video interview technology and become competent in shining a light on these skills when answering interview questions. Its team also has access to HireVue Builder, enabling them to rapidly create high-quality structured interviews based on predetermined key skills for the job.
Andrew Jackson, CEO of SaluteMyJob, said, “This partnership with HireVue is invaluable in our mission to ensure ex-Servicemen and women are in a position to access the opportunities available to them when they leave the Armed Forces and take the right steps on their journeys into employment. For many armed forces personnel, the transition towards civilian work presents a series of unjust, structural barriers fueling a belief that there is a lack of opportunity. This can lead to many candidates feeling trapped into taking lower paid, unsecure positions.”
A recent survey by SaluteMyJob of 640 members of the Armed Forces community found that over a third of respondents felt disadvantaged when applying for jobs due to their military association, while only 18% of people said that they found it easy to find the right organisation to meet their needs. Transition support and mentoring was named as the most important need for veterans so the provision of a safe space where military men and women can practice and build interview confidence is key to the transition process.
“We’re proud to be partnering with SaluteMyJob to improve preparation for employment opportunities for veterans in the UK,” said Kevin Parker, Chairman and CEO of HireVue. “Technology should not be a barrier to re-entering the workforce and candidates will be able to build confidence in answering video interview questions and trialling the virtual interview technology now used in the recruitment processes of many large organisations. By using HireVue’s end-to-end hiring experience platform, SaluteMyJob can provide accurate and tailored feedback to candidates, with tangible tips and advice on how they can improve their performance ahead of a real interview.”
HireVue has provided SaluteMyJob with a virtual interview practice room, which can be used at a candidate’s leisure or ahead of an interview for a specific role. In addition, SaluteMyJob is also able to utilise one of HireVue’s game-based assessments, which helps it to establish a candidate’s competencies and inspire potential career paths that align closely with their soft skills and previous experience.
To learn more about HireVue’s partnership with SaluteMyJob, please visit: https://www.salutemyjob.com/interview-practice-tool
About HireVue
HireVue is where hiring happens – transforming the way organizations discover, engage, and hire the best talent. Connecting companies and candidates anytime, anywhere, HireVue’s industry leading end-to-end hiring platform features video interviewing, assessments and conversational AI. HireVue has hosted more than 20 million video interviews and 143M chat-based candidate engagements for over 700 pioneering customers around the globe.
About Salute My Job
SaluteMyJob is on a mission to better connect people from the Armed Forces community with supportive, ‘Forces Friendly’ employers and the opportunities they offer. We help employers plan and implement structured, sustainable and measurable programmes to support delivery of pledges made when signing the Armed Forces Covenant and to build pipelines of talent. Soldiers, sailors and airmen have transferable knowledge, skills and experience that add value to any organisation. SaluteMyJob provides access to this 1m strong community and helps job seekers plan their job search and undertake the right training to adapt or develop relevant skills and to realise their true potential.
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ExFor+ CIC is a relatively new organisation but has been established with the objective of becoming a National overarching organisation within the Veterans Support Sector. Our aim is to bring about, positive Social and Economic change for the country as well as a significant
transformation of how Service leavers, Veterans, their families and communities are supported. We will do this through effective collaboration, communication and management of a number of services and departments, ranging from engaging with Government, The Third sector and also the supporters of, those who’ve served and often sacrificed so much for their country. We are currently supporting a number of service leavers and veterans with a range of issues ranging from housing, unemployment, benefits, personal development, education, and are constantly looking for employers who see the positives in recruiting and supporting individuals in to work to create longterm and sustainable futures.
www.InvestorsInVeterans.com
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