Building a Future for Service Leavers

Building a Future for Service Leavers

Did you know that over 14,000 skilled and experienced people leave the Armed Forces every year? As trainers to the Royal Engineers, MKC Training works with the Career Transition Partnership (CTP) to develop courses that smooth the transition from military to civilian life, translating the challenges of the battlefield to those of more generic fields in commercial life.

What is the CTP agreement?

The CTP is a partnering agreement between the Ministry of Defence and Right Management Ltd, global career development and outplacement specialists and part of the ManpowerGroup. This partnership provides valuable resettlement services for those leaving the Royal Navy, Army, Royal Air Force and Marines. Regardless of time served, all members of the Armed Forces can benefit from CTP support when leaving Service. Many of those that pass through the MKC Training (MKC) skills programmes when they join the services are well aware that those qualifications will prove a vital foundation for their transition to civilian life when they eventually leave the Armed Forces. David Owen, Head of the Plumbing/Heating and Air Conditioning Training at MKC explains,

“For us, our involvement with CTP provides a sense of completeness. It’s about ensuring that not only do our learners have the skills and knowledge they need to thrive in the Services, but that they can continue to excel and provide increasing value when they leave.”

For the past four years, MKC Training has offered Accredited Certification Scheme (ACS) Gas courses to service leavers. “This has been a phenomenally popular programme,” David reflects.

“Not only have our pass rates consistently been in excess of 90%, but 87% of our learners have found work afterwards in the gas industry.”

Careers, not just courses

For MKC, it’s always about ‘Careers not just courses’ and the whole experience, practice sessions and training materials are designed with this in mind.

“It’s never just about putting a course together,” David continues,

“When we designed our gas certification programme we had to make sense of the standards and put appropriate assessments in place for our students. We also included real work experience with commercial organisations, so that learners could benefit from the most effective combination of knowledge, skills practice in simulated settings, and real experience with active businesses.”

For us it’s really important to build a strong relationship with a qualification’s awarding body and in this case we worked closely with LOGIC Certification Limited (LCL). We also maintained close contact with the CTP, as we needed to negotiate an extension on the time allowance that service leavers are given for training when exiting the forces. The end result was a world class programme including 25 days training with MKC Training, and an 8 week work placement with a 10 day assessment phase at the end.

This schedule gives all our students the chance to achieve their core gas qualification, including cookers, boilers, flue gas analysis, meters and a Level 3 Diploma in gas utilisation! We mapped the diploma into the ACS course with approval from LCL and so reduced the examinations involved by 59%, further enhancing students’ possible achievement rates. This has been rolled out across all centres in the UK, benefiting everyone throughout the UK enrolled on this qualification.

“We continue to be delighted with the takeup of this course,” comments Peter Cox, Commercial Director at MKC Training. “It’s a testament to our world class facilities and exceptional training delivery, and also the awarding body relationships that we have built. Most importantly, graduates from this course find employment as a result, and with that a career they can develop in the civilian world.”

Talk to us about partnering to develop new courses – building knowledge, skills and confidence in your people and your teams.