Heywood’s Veterans Into Logistics to receive £100k funding to support training and employment

Heywood-based charity Veterans Into Logistics is to receive £100,000 funding from government as part of a push to recruit more veterans into HGV driving roles.

The grant from the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Steve Barclay has been provided to the local charity, which provides bespoke training for former military personnel who wish to pursue careers in HGV driving.

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 at Veterans Into Logistics and the veteran community.

“We have managed to change so many lives over the past two years, whilst contributing to the HGV driver shortage by working with some great forward-leaning companies who champion our veterans/service leavers; 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 and will keep these as a veteran, they are a dedicated, loyal breed of individual.

“We are grateful for the assistance received so far from the cabinet officer; this has enabled us to broaden our team to achieve our mission of supporting even more veterans into new careers within the Logistics sector.

“Veterans Into Logistics look forward to working in partnership with the government.”

 

 

The funding has been welcomed by the MP for Heywood and Middleton, Chris Clarkson.

He said: “It's been a privilege and a pleasure to be able to work with Veterans Into Logistics the past couple of years.

“This is a real home-grown success story, taking an idea from its foundations and building it into something truly impressive.

“Now with £100,000 of support from the government as well as the backing of a large number of big-name firms locally, I'm certain they'll be able to take their amazing work to the next level.

“It's safe to say that Veterans Into Logistics are changing lives for the better and I'm extremely proud to say that's happening in our community.”

The grant forms part of the OVA’s aim to enable veterans to make the most of their skills and gain employment in civilian life, in particular, to facilitate the training and employment of military veterans as HGV drivers given national shortages.

Veterans Into Logistics is also developing a programme with Müller Dairies to support veterans who have previously been in prison, to find work in Müller’s distribution warehouses, further helping their rehabilitation. The plans will also allow the veterans to, in parallel, be trained as HGV drivers.

While on the visit, the minister met with veterans who had been hired after completing their HGV training with Veterans Into Logistics. The minister also spoke with representatives from XPO, ASDA and Müller Milk & Ingredients, who have hired veterans directly after their training from Veterans Into Logistics.