We appreciate that the transition from the Armed Forces to the corporate world offers a unique set of challenges. While our opportunities are open for all to apply, we are committed to supporting service men and women leaving the Forces and our employees who have serving relations. We are very proud of our ex-military workforce and understand the value they bring through the way they think and deliver as well as often having hands-on experience with our terminals and technology.
We also have a number of cadet groups connected to us following cadet events. In November 2019 we welcomed over 150 cadets from units all over the country including as far as Yorkshire and are planning future similar events. We have also been approached to run specific events with local groups on their regular evenings.
Cadets visiting our London headquarters.
These days offer the opportunity for cadets to understand more about what we do and the services we provide. Sea cadets gained insight into our maritime safety services and tried out our search and rescue simulator. Our visiting RAF cadets learned about cockpit safety and inflight connectivity and all other cadets were involved in a virtual reality (VR) demo and were able to visit our VR suite.
Cadets visiting the Inmarsat Maritime Simulator
Our Maritime Simulator allows us to demonstrate how our satellite technology can support those at sea. Here John Dodd, Director of Safety Services, works with a group of cadets to simulate an incident and a rescue mission using Inmarsat’s Global Maritime Distress and Safety System (GMDSS).
Importantly all cadets were able to speak to ex-military Inmarsat personnel or those that had been in the cadets who are now working with us.
We are also able to offer week-long work experience placements to cadets interested in finding out more. Our engagement with and employment of cadets exposes us to diversified skills that bring us different ways of working.
"Helping support the Early Career events has been a real highlight of my time in Inmarsat. It’s all too easy for us to normalise what we do as a company as we go through our day-to-day lives but being stood in a room with a group that are seeing it for the first time is a great way to remind yourself that what we do is pretty incredible. The energy and excitement they always bring into the presentations, activities and of course the questions they ask always give me a boost! The cadet day was an important one for me as an ex-cadet myself. We had a high number of Air Cadets attend so the session on Aviation was popular and I hope we gave them some new ideas and understanding about how Inmarsat technology is transforming the aviation industry."
Veterans within Inmarsat are actively encouraged to maintain links to the military community and supported by the company where possible. One example of this is the provision of Inmarsat resources to an injured service leaver who produces podcasts in his spare time for the military community.
We currently have a member of staff who joined us upon leaving the military with no formal education other than GCSEs and some NVQs obtained during his time serving. He is now undertaking a six year degree apprenticeship in engineering while working within our business. At the beginning of the year he was nominated as Apprentice of the Year.
"I am extremely supportive of Ash’s nomination for Apprentice of the Year. I think it’s hugely important that we recognise those who join us from alternative backgrounds. As Ash has demonstrated the skills and knowledge he gained in the military has been invaluable and meant that he was quickly able to settle into our team and add real value. Ash has a great career ahead of him."
We also are proud to directly support a predominantly ex-military disaster response charity both financially and with equipment for their deployments (RE:ACT). We have almost 100 employees within Inmarsat who are volunteers for the charity. These include senior management / directors.
"Many of our colleagues at Inmarsat have joined us from a military background and we are lucky to have already experienced the immense talent and skillset that they bring to our organisation."
