In 2009 Help for Heroes agreed a grant of £224,300 to fund a two-year pilot Internship Programme for personnel in the three services – Army, Royal Navy and RAF - recovering from physical and psychological injuries sustained during active service.
The aim of the programme is to provide tangible benefits to recovering personnel by enabling them to engage in formal and on-the-job training. This will take the form of a work placement with a Skill Force team, working with young people in a learning environment under the tutelage of Skill Force Instructors, most of whom are ex-Service themselves.
Lieutenant Colonel Nicky Murdoch, Internship Programme Manager on secondment to Skill Force from the MoD, says: “Interns will get an unparalleled opportunity to gain teaching experience in a sympathetic environment that will enable them to develop new skills in working with young people while assisting in their overall rehabilitation.”
“Over 80% of our Instructors have an Armed Forces background,” says Skill Force Chief Executive, Peter Cross OBE, “so we are well positioned, both culturally and geographically, to design and deliver a programme of exceptional quality to those wounded in the recent conflicts. It is our hope that they will continue in the youth sector should they decide to leave the Service, perhaps becoming a Skill Force Instructor.“
The pilot Internship Programme ran in late 2009 and proved to be a resounding success, with the interns attached to Skill Force teams throughout the country. One of those interns has now been taken on full time as a Skill Force Instructor. The third course started in March 2010 and the Internship Programme continues to go from strength to strength.
Other funding for the Skill Force Internship Programme has also been received from the Veterans' Challenge Fund and ABF The Soldiers' Charity.
