The Office for Veterans’ Affairs provides £100,000 of Taxpayers' money to the charity Veterans Into Logistics, to support veterans to become HGV drivers
The Taxpayers will provide £100,000 in funding to get more veterans in HGV driving roles, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Steve Barclay has announced today. The new announcement is on top of the £25m of Taxpayer funding being distributed through the Armed Forces Covenant Fund Trust to charities to offer support to veterans across the United Kingdom.
The grant has been provided to the charity Veterans into Logistics, which provides bespoke training for former military personnel who wish to pursue careers in HGV driving. The taxpayer-funded programme comes after the Ministry of Defence provided 350 HGV training places through the Career Transition Partnership scheme in November.
Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Steve Barclay said:
The £100,000 of funding from the Officer for Veterans’ Affairs will enable the charity to significantly uplift its annual training throughput, increasing the number of staff and trebling the training available. The charity has already delivered training for more than 300 veterans, supporting them into employment.
Director of Veterans into Logistics Darren Wright said:
The grant forms part of the OVA’s aim to enable veterans to make the most of their skills and gain employment in civilian life, in particular to facilitate the training and employment of military veterans as HGV drivers given national shortages.
Veterans into Logistics are also developing a programme with Muller Dairies to support veterans who have previously been in prison, to find work in Muller’s distribution warehouses, further helping their rehabilitation. The plans will also allow the veterans to in parallel be trained as HGV drivers.
While on the visit, the minister met with veterans who had been hired after completing their HGV training with Veterans into Logistics. The minister also spoke with representatives from XPO, ASDA and Muller Milk & Ingredients, who have hired veterans directly after their training from Veterans into Logistics.
The government is focusing on taxpayers supporting veterans into careers that maximise the skills they have gained while serving in the armed forces. This has included rolling out the ‘Great Place to Work for Veterans’ scheme across all central government departments, which was announced this week, and through the fast-track ‘Advance into Justice’ scheme for them to access prison officer roles.
Before travelling to Veterans into Logistics, Mr Barclay visited the Military Veterans Service in Bury, which provides NHS mental health and wellbeing support, known as Op Courage. The minister met with clinicians and nurses who work at the trust.
Steve Eden, who works for ASDA after gaining his C+E qualification said: