TNT welcomes service leavers By Laura Hailstone TNT EXPRESS Services
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has given more than 200 military personnel a fortnight's work placement via the Skills for Logistics (Sit) Military Work Placement Scheme (MVVPS).
Launched in November, the £1.4m government-funded scheme was set up to provide 1,000 service leavers with advice on identify how their skills match roles in the logistics sector, including a structured two-week work placement.
Malcolm Pickup, head of people performance and development at TNT, said that armed forces personnel are a great source of talent for the logistics industry: "From a skills perspective, they're well trained; and from a cultural fit, they come from an organisation that is work-hard play-hard, which fits our industry. What they lack is that commercial acumen."
This is where the work placement scheme comes into affect.
"The point is for military people to understand what a commercial environment looks like.
"They spend two weeks with us, we induct them, give them a job to do, pair them up with a buddy and do an exit interview, which prepares them for work in the real world," explained Pickup.
To date, TNT has employed 10 of the 200 personnel who have done work placements, but plans to take on more. "The problem is often that these individuals are still six months off from their release date when they do the placement with us. But it gives us an external talent pool that we can tap into at a later date," said Pickup.
He said the MVVPS has also provided TNT with an opportunity to introduce new people to the organisation and spread the word around about its brand. "We also get a very willing and capable pair of hands for two weeks," he added. The Sit scheme is aimed at senior non-commissioned officers and lower, so TNT is funding work placement opportunities for higher ranking officers.
"We have a colonel with us this week," said Pickup. "A lot of military personnel don't realise the skill sets they have and how they can fit with logistics."
He added: "We're screaming out as an industry for fresh talent and there are people who have great team-leading, supervisory and management capabilities, yet they're training to be plumbers or electricians when they leave the services."