Amy served in the RAF for 9 years finishing her career in 2018 as Senior Aircraftman. She was a Stewardess, working in the Officers and Sergeant’s Mess.
A typical day for Amy, consisted of four different shifts:
The key (transferable) skills Amy honed whilst serving in the RAF were teamwork, communication skills, ability to work in a fast and demanding role and being adaptable, coping with last minute changes.
With the support of BuildForce, Amy secured her new role as SHE and L&D Coordinator with Kier (Highways) via a 3 month placement with the Communications Team. This was then extended for a further 6 months with the H&S team which then resulted in Kier offering Amy a permanent contract.
Amy focused on staying positive with the belief things would work out in the end. Support from her friends and family were a huge help. However, her largest challenge when adjusting to Civvy Street was translating her ‘military speak/slang.’ She was also greatly affected when her first job, post military service wasn’t the sustainable career she had planned, and resulted in her struggling to find a place to belong. Amy said if she’d had the support of BuildForce and work placements from the beginning, she would have been able to explore her options further.
Amy’s new role is split into two parts: firstly, wearing her L&D hat Amy ensures all operatives and office staff are trained and hold the required safety qualifications. Secondly as the SHE Coordinator a lot of admin and paperwork is required in order for the H&S team to work effectively.
A typical day for Amy involves completing all the H&S inductions including the paperwork, running reports and typing up meeting minutes. Within her L&D role she maintains the matrix and schedules all staff courses and ensuring the Highways passport subscriptions are up to date. In addition, to this, Amy is also an alcohol and drug tester and a member of Kier’s Armed Forces Network. Amy will soon complete her Mental Health First Aid course.
The main advice Amy would give to someone who is leaving the Armed Forces and seeking a new career in construction is:
“Keep an open mind, be keen and take onboard what you have learnt and are being told. Your days will never be the same, there will always be changes.”
And her three words to describe a career in construction:
“Demanding, fast paced and rewarding”.
To conclude, Amy commented:
“I also want to say a massive thank you to the team at BuildForce for helping me find my role within Kier, I started to feel lost and now I am with Kier I feel like I have found where I fit in this mad world of civvy street.”