The unique experience and varied skillsets developed by military personnel during their service presents a significant opportunity for meeting skills needs across the public sector. However, government research published in April 2025 shows that just over half of veterans took jobs with lower skills levels than their last role in the armed forces upon leaving, despite over 80% believing they have transferable skills that would allow them to succeed in civilian roles1.
This presents a clear opportunity to help veterans find fulfilling second careers while utilising their expertise to bring new skills and experience to the delivery of public services.
A natural fit for public service
The public sector is facing a crisis of recruitment and retention as it becomes increasingly difficult to attract entrants with the right skillsets into industries from defence and healthcare to education and local government. For defence, a seemingly obvious talent pool for recruitment is that of military leavers and veterans, who are able to talk the language and have a lived experience of defence, with the potential to help futureproof the industry. And yet, as government figures show, this potential remains largely untapped.
Salli Shapcott, director of engineering and asset management for Serco’s defence business
As a gold signatory of the Armed Forces Covenant, Serco recognises the transferable skills that ex-service personnel can offer and is committed to actively recruiting veterans and providing flexibility to reservists by supporting training and deployment. As a result, we are now a leading employer of veterans in the UK and have recruited 370 military leavers in the past year, taking the total number of veterans and reservists in our employment to more than 2,500, or eight per cent of our UK workforce.
Bringing military leadership into civilian roles
Let’s look at some examples where military leaders are making an impact in public life. Hayley Peek joined the army in 2002 as a nursing student in Queen Alexandra’s Royal Army Nursing Corps and spent eight years training and gaining nursing experience.
Now, Hayley is using the leadership skills she developed during this time in her role as Integrated Services Director for Serco’s Justice and Immigration business division, overseeing the delivery of health and social care partnerships along with training and development. Hayley’s ability to manage multiple complex workstreams, picked up from working in a fast-paced, military environment, exemplifies the transferable skills that veterans can bring to service organisations such as ours in the public sector.
Mike Hayes is another example of a military leaver with a successful second career. Mike joined the Royal Marines in 2012 and is now a Maritime Ambassador as part of his role as Transformation and Programmes Director for Serco’s Defence business. In this post, Mike has played a critical role across innovative projects, from securing funding for the design and build of a zero-emissions outboard motor to being part of a project to build a revolutionary ‘half board’ engine for the maritime sector. Following his military service, Mike’s achievements led to his recognition as a finalist for ‘Young Leader of the Year’ in the 2024 British Ex-Forces in Business Awards, demonstrating the ability of veterans to not just contribute to, but to excel in, the public sector.
As the skills needed in public sector industries such as defence grow, the work of veterans at Serco is proof of the valuable contribution and transferable skills that this relatively untapped vein of talent can offer to the defence industry and the public sector at large, helping to improve their resilience and ensure positive growth into the future.
Mike and Hayley’s achievements are two examples among over 2,500 within our organisation who are becoming meaningful contributors to our sector because of their military experience. This can be extrapolated further beyond our business, with countless more veterans making notable impacts in other organisations, sectors and industries, proving the need case for, and benefits of, veteran employment.
For our own part, we wanted to recognise and celebrate the impact of military leavers, so in 2023, we established our Veterans and Forces Network to both support and recognise the key role veterans have to play in service organisations in the public sector.
Discover how veterans are supported through careers at Serco, visit Veterans | Serco