The government will provide £100,000 in funding to get more veterans in HGV driving roles, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Steve Barclay has announced.
The new announcement is on top of the £25 million of government funding being distributed through the Armed Forces Covenant Fund Trust to charities to offer support to veterans across the United Kingdom.
The grant has been provided to the charity Veterans into Logistics, which provides bespoke training for former military personnel who wish to pursue careers in HGV driving.
The government-funded programme comes after the Ministry of Defence provided 350 HGV training places through the Career Transition Partnership scheme in November.
Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Steve Barclay said:
“Veterans gain great skills and experience while in the military and we want to ensure that those skills are fully utilised when they move into civilian work.
“With £100,000 in government support, Veterans in Logistics will be able to step up their already successful HGV training.
“This helps both veterans with more career opportunities and continues to grow the recruitment pipeline in the HGV sector.”
The £100,000 of funding from the Officer for Veterans’ Affairs will enable the charity to significantly uplift its annual training throughput, increasing the number of staff and trebling the training available.
The charity has already delivered training for more than 300 veterans, supporting them into employment.
Director of Veterans into Logistics Darren Wright said:
“Having the support of the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster really does mean a lot to us and the veteran community.
“We have managed to change so many lives over the past two years, whilst contributing to the HGV driver shortage.
“However, we know we can do so much more with government support to enhance our mission moving forward.
“Ex-military personnel have a set of skills that the companies we work with look for in employees, they have had morals and standards drilled into them throughout their career, they are a dedicated, loyal breed of individual.
