the business ladder

As thousands of staff are expected to leave the armed forces, enterprise charity Heropreneurs and the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) have called for improved enterprise training to persuade ex-military individuals to start their own businesses.

The comments come in response to the Government cuts, after a recent report sees them stating that the government needs to make sure that its resettlement programmed is “fit for purpose”, and that a body is formed to ensure the coordination of the already existing support structures for those leaving the military and entering the civilian sphere.

Richard Morris, the founder of Heropreneurs, said that “If you have 20-30,000 people a year coming out who are expensively trained and skilled, you would expect to do more for them in society than is presently done.”

The report also suggests that the Government’s reviews on Strategic Defence and Security are set to increase the numbers leaving the armed forces from 24,000 per annum to over 75,000 in the space of the next two years.

Despite some workplace training being offered to them on their departure, the report argues that the current programmes in place are restricting and badly targeted, and overlook any entrepreneurial suggestions altogether. Furthermore, support offered by existing institutions is poorly coordinated and nowhere near as effective as it could be.

Other suggestions made in the report include putting more systems in place that will help ex-military personnel transform their existing skills into workplace skills, as well as urging the Ministry of Defence to create closer bonds with recruitment agencies and business organisations. The key point, however, was that a culture of entrepreneurial spirit should be cultivated amongst those within and leaving the military.

Ex-naval airman and founder of Butlers in the Buff, Jason Didcot, supported the suggestion, saying that “most of us just signed up for anything when we did our courses ahead of leaving. There was nothing really to suggest going into business for yourself.

“A lot of guys in the forces are very self-motivated and imaginative, and very capable of starting and running a business.”

However, some of the claims made in the report have been questioned, with a spokesman from the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills asserting that the numbers leaving the military is likely to be no more than 40,000 in the next two years, rather than the bloated figure of 75,000.

“We have provided £5million funding to the Royal British Legion’s Be the Boss scheme, which provides high-quality training and business planning support to service leavers who want to start or grow their own business. In the first year of the scheme more than 1,000 ex-service personnel registered their interest and more than 340 are currently in training.

“We will consider the proposals made in the report.”

 

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