Amey’s Defence employees are passionate about supporting the Armed Forces. Not only do we carry out maintenance, project work and housing services as part of our contractual requirements we also support Service personnel in other ways too!
We are partnered with SSAFA, the Armed Forces charity, BuildForce, the construction led military recruitment programme, Women in Defence and the Open University’s Disabled Veterans’ Scholarship Fund. These organisations support Service leavers with the sometimes difficult transition phase and help them to make better and more informed decisions about their future career choices.
In our Regional Prime South East contract, our teams embraced the opportunity to support a local Service leaver who is approaching his last six months in the Army. Sean Beck is currently the Regimental Quarter Master Sergeant at Bicester and is used to working with our Amey team on site. As part of his resettlement plan, he asked if there was potential for him to carry out a work placement.
John Canham, Amey’s Site Manager, was keen to help. Being ex-Army himself he understands the challenges faced by Service leavers and was quick to arrange and put the necessary controls in place to comply with the current COVID-19 restrictions.
John said “We provided Sean with a full programme of activities over the week he was with us which included an introduction to Amey’s health and safety procedures, customer and client activities and an insight into our commercial processes. Throughout the placement we demonstrated how the skills he learnt in the Army can easily be transferred over into civilian roles and emphasised how businesses such as ours are keen to recruit Service leavers. The whole team enjoyed having Sean on board and we hope to provide similar opportunities for others who are preparing to leave the Forces.”
Sean added “A work placement is something that money cannot buy for the Service leaver as it allows us to gain an insight into the industry and tailor our resettlement training and courses. My placement with Amey was very informative and constructive and allowed me to look at Hard FM in the civilian sector, especially how a relatively small job can increase significantly not only in cost, but time. I really enjoyed how diverse the role was and how the Amey team prioritised their work to ensure the MOD’s sites are kept operational. Thank you to John and the team for taking the time to show me the varying roles within Facilities Management.”