Building society Nationwide has launched the second round of its military transition programme, which recruits and supports former armed forces personnel into project manager roles.

The programme, which this year begins with an insight event at its Swindon headquarters on 14 January, aims to recruit ex-service personnel for the firm’s business transformation department.

The company says values upheld by service personnel – integrity, courage, determination, leadership and teamwork – are key for its own business. 

And a company spokesperson tells Recruiter these people are recruited for project manager roles because "project managers need to be able to galvanise people from across the business, give clear direction and make decisions under pressure. 

"They must have excellent communication skills and lead a team of people who perhaps haven’t worked together before. We find that ex Armed Forces personnel often have these skills which is why they can make excellent project managers."

While this programme specifically recruits project managers, the firm does employ ex-forces personnel in other roles.

Following the insight day, an assessment day will take place on 16 February.

The recruits are then supported in their new roles at Nationwide with extra training, which takes into account skills they have acquired in previous roles. They are also paired with existed ex-forces employees to help with the transition. 

While this programme specifically recruits project managers, the firm does employ ex-forces personnel in other roles. It currently has about 40 ex-forces people in its business transformation department and is hoping to recruit an extra eight this round.

The first insight day and recruitment round was held last May and recruited eight people.

Nationwide is also working with military charities including the Royal British Legion, Help for Heroes and SSAFA to support various areas of the military community.

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