Armed Forces Covenant

We are supportive of our Armed Forces community, and proud to achieve an Armed Forces Covenant Employer Recognition Scheme Silver Award in 2021.

The Armed Forces Covenant is a promise from the nation that those who serve or have served in the armed forces, and their families, are treated fairly.

As a forces-friendly organisation, we accommodate the needs of our growing community of reservists, Cadet Force Adult Volunteers, service leavers and military-connected family members. Our positive policies towards Defence People include the following activities and initiatives:

Reservists and Cadet Force Volunteers

We have:

• Created a mobilisation framework for Volunteer Reservists and their line managers to help prepare together for mobilisation and return to work.
• Granted employees that are members of the Reserve Forces 10 days additional paid leave for Reserve service & training.
• Granted employees who are Cadet Force Adult Volunteers (CFAVs) 5 days additional paid leave to undertake training. Learn more about CFAV opportunities.

Entrepreneurship

Our partnership with X-Forces Enterprise means the winners of the business categories of the Soldiering On Awards each year will become Entrepreneurs in Residence (EiRs) at ARU. Our Entrepreneurs in Residence programme sees successful businesspeople take on roles at ARU, offering formal mentorship and advising students and graduates on their business ideas and start-up companies, and passing on their valuable experience.

Online degrees for the Armed Forces

We offer unique work-based distance learning degrees for members of the Army, Royal Navy and Royal Air Force.

Recruitment

We partnered with Career Transition Partnership (CTP), an organisation that helps Service Leavers/Veterans find employment and promotes select ARU Professional Services jobs that suit the skills and experience of the CTP audience.

We joined the Forces Families Jobs (FFJ) website, a platform that offers job opportunities to military-connected family members, to share all of our Professional Services vacancies with the FFJ audience.

Armed Forces Staff Network

We are developing a network for service leavers and veterans, reservists, CFAVs, family members and any other individuals with an interest in the Armed Forces employed at ARU. Our Armed Forces Champions will help foster an inclusive workplace culture, advocate our commitment to the Covenant, increase a sense of belonging through meetings, activities and events of interest to our network members and the wider community that we serve and signpost network members to relevant people and resources for mentorship and support.

Our on-campus events include:

• Chelmsford Sea Cadets parade - weekly
• AF and Veterans Breakfast Club - last Wednesday of the month
• Essex Army Cadet Awards – October annually
• Help 4 Heroes Veterans Sports day – December annually

Contact us

To find out more, please contact Prof Mike Almond. Mike is an ex-RAF Reservist with involvement in the veteran community.

Find other members of the VFI.