Recruit for Spouses is an award-winning, independent social enterprise, run largely by people whose spouses are serving in the Armed Forces. We exist to help military spouses find a job or start a business that works for them.
Military spouses sacrifice everything to follow their partners who are serving in the British Army, the Navy and the Royal Air Force. Recruit for Spouses is not just about finding a job. It’s about spouses re
When military spouses are able to return to the workplace, employers can tap into the talent and skills they offer – benefiting their business and the economy as a whole.
Recruit for Spouses is leading the change towards a world where the wives, husbands and partners of our Armed Forces find it easy to secure work, rather than facing prejudice.
In turn, businesses benefit from the vast pool of resourceful, resilient and adaptable talent that has lain untapped for so many years.
Our vision of the future is a win-win situation for military spouses and employers alike. It alters the way military spouses live and work, shapes the way businesses source and retain quality employees, and changes the perception of Forces’ spouses as a transient workforce.
Heledd realised that despite the vast number of military businesses and charities offering career advice and employment to serving personnel and veterans, there was little or no support for the wives and partners who had already sacrificed so much.
Through her previous career, working with elite sportsmen and women, Heledd had learned that when something’s not right, you fix it. So, in 2011, she set up Recruit for Spouses to challenge the status quo – to get employers to understand military spouses and see them as an untapped resource with huge potential.
“Since 2011, RFS has helped more than 800 spouses into work and helped hundreds more with their CVs.”
Recruit for Spouses has worked tirelessly for spouses to build their
career opportunities. Now they are firmly on the agenda and included in the Covenant (a promise from the nation that those who serve or have served, and their families, are treated fairly).
helping the wives and partners of our Armed forces
“Service families often have little choice about where they live or when they have to move. This is why we must make a clear effort to help service spouses achieve employment wherever they find themselves living.”
In 2014, Recruit for Spouses was accepted onto the Deloitte Social Pioneers Programme for
ocial enterprises who are making a significant impact in their industry
, I am lucky enough to have found a career which is all about helping people to be their best selves. That happens in a variety of ways; from supporting sixth formers to grow their employability, informally helping wives to start doing what they love, to coaching senior managers to develop themselves as leaders, no two days are the same!
I served in the Army for six years, which thankfully gave me a great insight into military life before taking the plunge as a spouse. The choice to work as a freelancer has served me well, with over 18 moves under our belts, it has enabled me to keep my career and experience current, no matter where we are based. During those 23 years, we have also been blessed with 3 lovely children, and being independent workwise has meant that I could, (with the help of my incredible mum), as the need arose, work part-time and therefore be there for them.
, until I took more of a career break with my third child. As I had seen others around me experience, I lost my confidence. I no longer believed myself capable of doing what I had once thought to be a really straightforward job. I had minor panic attacks and lost many nights of sleep each time I ventured back for a day here and there. Of course I ended those days thinking, “don’t be ridiculous, of course you can do it!” but when the next opportunity arose, a couple of months later, I was back at square one.
I can happily say that I am now ‘back on the bus’ of self-confidence and self-belief. And the solution? Well, a bit of mindfulness (the app Headspace is brilliant!), some positive self-talk and gratefulness and then zipping up my ‘woman-suit’, finding my ‘steely core’ and being brave enough to put myself in stretch workwise, a little at a time, until I believed the feedback I was getting and started once again to value my own skills – and I was loving it, which of course helped!
, understanding the community they serve so clearly and not only connecting a stunningly-talented group of spouses with quality employers, but also representing those spouses within the Ministry of Defence and to parliamentary groups means that our voice is heard, far and wide. The services they provide; everything from helping with CV’s to running courses in digital skills are entirely practical and focussed on giving spouses all the support they could possibly need in finding the right employment for them. That’s a wonderful thing and I am proud to be an RfS ambassador.
Championing the work done by Recruit for Spouses
(RfS) north of the border is former Downing Street advisor Sarah Stone, a military spouse with a diverse professional background who has just set up a co-working hub in Leuchars, Scotland. Alongside offering office facilities to other military spouses, Sarah runs her own company, Samtaler, that forges social as well as economic benefits between businesses and the community.
“My new company advises business on ways to create value for all stakeholders, not just shareholders. My background is marketing, politics, and stakeholder engagement: now, my clients are companies who have won public sector contracts in Scotland that require them to create a community benefit as part of that contract.
“I look at what their business does, what resources it has available, and at the community it seeks to benefit; I consider the things it can offer. Then, I connect that company with relevant charities, community groups, social enterprises and individuals it can help.”
