A COUNCIL has received a gold award for its work to support employment of people involved in the armed forces.

Tendring Council was recognised for its work in the Ministry of Defence employer recognition scheme, with officials collecting the award at an event in London on Thursday, September 29.

Publicly recognising employers’ efforts to support defence personnel issues, such as employing reservists and veterans, gold award holders must also encourage other organisations to do the same.

Chris Amos, Tendring Council’s armed forces champion, said: “We have done a lot of work to ensure we are a forces-friendly employer, and that has been reflected in the feedback from our staff who come from this community.”

Kristina Carrington, regional employer engagement director for East Anglia at the Ministry of Defence, added: “We are delighted and humbled that so many of our employers have been awarded a gold award, the highest accolade available. 

“Following, what has been a difficult few years for us all, they have gone above and beyond to support our armed forces community, they have our sincerest thanks.”

The topic of employers supporting defence personnel issues was prevalent at the Tendring4Growth Business Fortnight Event, which took place on Wednesday at the Kingscliff Hotel in Holland-on-Sea.

During the seminar, Ms Carrington spoke along with Gary Stockton, community and armed forces development assistant at Colchester Council.

The pair talked about the benefits that come from employing people with a military background and how organisations can work towards their own employer recognition scheme award or otherwise support the Armed Forces Covenant.

Karen Townshend, executive projects manager at Tendring Council also spoke about her transition to civilian life.

Mr Amos added: “Veterans, reservists, cadet leaders and the partners of those currently serving all have great transferable skills and are top assets for any organisation as we have seen with employees such as Karen.

“We’d like to see more Tendring businesses benefit from this skill pool, particularly with the country’s second-largest garrison at Colchester, which is why we’re taking our advocacy role as a gold award holder so seriously.”