My job is to help people leave their old lives behind

My job is to help people leave their old lives behind

           The Royal British Legion Industries’ Vocational Assessment Centre was established in 1996 to help the transition of ex-servicemen and women, especially those with a disability, into suitable civilian employment. The facility is situated within the Royal British Legion Village in Kent where clients are provided with meals and single accommodation during the three-day assessment period of rehabilitation. I, as the occupational psychologist, decided to introduce a relaxed, story-telling and story listening mode of career counselling in addition to deploying psychometric tests. Testing is a secondary, tailored intervention agreed with the client and not imposed as a blanket measure.

           By and large, service personnel, especially those below commissioned rank, are socialized from early youth into a way of life far more demanding in some ways, but cosseted and cocooned in others, than the rest of us. One has to listen and gain some understanding of the forces and circumstances that have shaped such individuals. Otherwise, a return to Civvy Street, often less ordered and hierarchical than what they are used to, becomes problematical. The counselling process helps them understand civilian work life demands are somewhat different to service life, especially in the new contract and portfolio work culture. Even a comprehensive battery of psychometric tests and work samples will not elicit a single usable fact unless the counsellor relates to the client as someone with no other agenda than to disinterestedly help them achieve their goals in a world of work that is changing fast.

           My clients find the transition to civilian life more difficult due to a whole range of disadvantages that handicap them in the job market. However, almost without exception they display well above average levels of innate capabilities, or, ‘fluid’ intelligence, even when they have left school with hardly any formal qualifications. Some have gained trade qualifications which are often limited to service occupations which have no equivalents in the civilian workplace. Family and social background are powerful influences on their choice of a service career.

           Tom, an Army Corporal aged 32, had passed his ‘eleven-plus’ as a schoolboy in the Midlands.  He had not taken up the offer to attend grammar school as he preferred to be with his ‘mates’ and social equals at the local comprehensive. He preferred not to be an object of derision of either the ‘snobs’ at grammar school or his ‘gang’ from primary school. His grandfather whom he admired had served in the Army during the Second World War. He left school without qualifications before he reached the compulsory school-leaving age and enrolled as an Army Cadet. At 17 he joined the regular Army in one of the Infantry Regiments. He had served on tours of duty in Germany, Northern Ireland and in the Gulf, and had been awarded the appropriate medals. Although he had intended to remain in the Army for the full length of 22 years before retirement, he was now being medically discharged following an accident in the sporting field. He had been a good regimental athlete, basketball player and swimmer, winning several trophies. The injury was to his back and had become degenerative. He walked with a slight limp and with the aid of a walking stick. He was married with one child. Although he was presently living in married quarters, he would need to decide where to live once discharged.

           On an intelligence test Tom’s performance was at the top 2 percent compared with population norms. He also had high scores on all aptitude tests ranging from Language Usage to Mechanical Reasoning. He did not appear to be surprised by the test results. His sole concern was to find a job - any job that would enable him to obtain a mortgage to buy a house, or else, to rent. His wife might be able to work part time most likely in a supermarket in a role similar to the one she had engaged in before marriage. He had no idea what he could or even wanted to do in a job and reiterated that all he was trained to be was an infantry soldier.

           An outgoing, relaxed person, socially at ease, further discussion revealed that during his period of army service, Tom had volunteered to help in the Junior NCOs’ mess. He had kept accounts and organized celebratory events and parties for service families. He did not think any of these as relevant, but was prepared to talk because it was in his nature to be sociable. Besides, nobody in the military hierarchy or medical practitioners and specialists had much time to engage him in conversation. They appeared to be interested only in presenting facts from their professional perspective and as quickly as possible. Tom was surprised that I was prepared to talk about my own background. I had been in a uniformed service, but later as an immigrant, held insecure, transient jobs in the UK, before late entry into higher education resulting in my being able to secure my current job as a psychologist.

           Through this informal counselling approach, Tom was able to apprehend that he possessed skills other than soldiering but that he needed to acquire further job-specific skills if he was to make a satisfactory entry into the civilian job market.

           On the second day of his assessment, Tom told me that he had thought a great deal about his situation, having glanced through published material available at the Centre. He had seen advertisements for vacancies in leisure management. He felt that he could combine his sporting interests and his supervisory experience in managing a sports centre, although he could no longer actively pursue sports or undertake physically demanding work. He accessed the Course Discover computerized information database and found an Open College training course in leisure management. He could do this in his own time studying from home. He also found that once he had decided where he was going to live, he could enrol at the local further education college and acquire National Vocational Qualifications (NVQs) at least up to Level 3 initially.

           By the third day, Tom was confident that he was on the right track. He also decided to acquire competence in using a PC (personal computer). He could do this by following a five-day computer literacy and information technology (CLAIT) course at the Royal British Legion Training Company, Tidworth College. This is a residential course and would be funded by his regiment as part of his resettlement package. Tom was then provided with information on how to prepare a curriculum vitae. Drawing upon all that he had learned about himself over the last two days, and based on a specimen or template of a one-page c.v., Tom accomplished this with minimal help from me. He then admitted that he had paid someone to do a ‘professional’ c.v. for him which ran to three pages. He felt that it made general statements that he was unlikely to be able to defend at a job interview.

Tom now had a feasible continuation to his narrative as a soldier in transition to a comfortable civilian work role. He also became aware that a job need not be for life and that he would need to continue to upgrade skills to remain employable.                                                                                                                                            (c.1200 words)

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