Translating Skills

Obtaining new employment post-service is a primary goal of the transition process. For those participants who had time to plan their resignation and had looked for new employment before their end date, new work was obtained immediately. Overall, however, the period of time for this group to obtain new employment post-service varied from immediately to four years. Julie explained ‘…the thing was I never had a backup plan. So firstly, being out of work for four years, you’re like grateful for whatever damn job you can get’. Maria confirmed that she had applied for ‘29 jobs’ after leaving and had ‘25 interviews’; whilst Paul submitted ‘40 job applications’, and both of these participants reported that the level of the jobs they applied for were lower than their rank at exit from the service. It was a common experience reported by this group that the skills and knowledge they had acquired in the service role did not easily translate into the wider workplace. In relation to translating their skills, it was a matter of accepting that this needed to be done and pursuing the opportunities to do so. For some it was more frustrating than for others. Skye explained that her training in the military did not translate well when she left, ‘even that posed a lot of problems when I did get out because it’s not a diploma in hospitality, you know like I’m a qualified chef but it didn’t show my management side’. The cookery qualification held by Skye from the military was not the same as the one expected in the non-military hospitality sector, but it is difficult to upskill in an area where the skills are already held. Conrad explained that he knew he had a range of skills from his time in the police, but confirmed  

I think the thing in being able to transition was being able to demonstrate the transferable skills. I would say that education or having a qualification to be able to put on an application form to jump through a barrier or a cull point is certainly important though, yeah.  

The need for the specific translation of skills for this group was further highlighted by Bob who explained that his experience had shown that ‘employers could have a better understanding of what defence people can bring to the table’. As a group, they believe that it is the new employer’s responsibility to understand what skills they have, rather than their responsibility to demonstrate those skills in the most appropriate manner for that new organisation. Bob went on to elaborate: 

well I’ll give you an example, I, one of the units I’ve had to get is lead and manage small teams. And yet I can go as a captain, I can lead a company, company into battle but I can’t, they won’t recognise me to manage a team of five people.   

The translation of skills involves ensuring that relevant skills acquired by police, military and emergency services personnel whilst in the employ of the service organisation are easily translatable to employment in, what they perceive to be, the civilian world. So, whilst the individuals from the service organisations do not believe that anyone in the civilian world has their skills, they are poor at being able to recognise the skills they do share with the mainstream civilian employment. For example, the participants often focused on their unique specialist skills such as covert surveillance, extinguishing fires, and firing weapons, and therefore considered themselves less employable in the civilian world because employers did not understand the usefulness of such skills outside the service organisation. As such, to support transition the translation of more generic skills is crucial. Attributes such as leadership and risk management are skills that this group possess which are framed in the language of the civilian world. Mistakes are made by the participants when they attend civilian employment interviews and describe their experience in military, police or emergency services terms. They lack the training to be able to correctly interpret their own skills and connect the dots for civilian employers. This means that the distinction they make between themselves and the civilian world when in service, causes them a disservice upon leaving. 

Many of the participants in this study had undertaken a skills transfer process and successfully held nationally recognised qualifications as a result. Although not directly addressed, several participants confirmed that holding the qualifications made re-employment easier and they were grateful for the support in more effectively translating their skills and knowledge. These skills were translated to nationally recognised qualifications under the Australian Qualifications Framework using Australian Registered Training Organisations (RTO) that are sufficiently equipped to conduct recognition of prior learning (RPL) assessments for this group. RPL is part of the requirements for an RTO and is a legitimate assessment process. This means that members of this group presented their employment history, and the RTO translated those skills and knowledge into nationally recognised qualifications that contain the same skills and knowledge requirements. This helped bridge the gap between the service organisation and the civilian world as the individuals can present to interview for mainstream employment with qualifications that are easily recognised by all employers and render them more competitive against other candidates. The majority of participants confirmed that this process helped them in their transition from the service organisation. Kim explained 

But I gradually realised that, oh God I do have something to offer, and I should be doing something with the skills that I have. But, but that took a while. A million percent. If I hadn’t have done that first, and hadn’t sort of kept qualifications up to date, and wasn’t able to go through the RPL process with you guys. But, yeah I, I would have been screwed I think without having some qualifications.  

Matthew confirmed a similar sentiment stating ‘look yeah for sure, you know if it wasn’t for you guys you know who did RPL then you know with what I, with all the security stuff and things like that, I think I would have crashed and burned years ago you know’. The importance of having an organisation that can interpret the documentation provided for the individuals when they leave their service job and help them transition into the civilian world was confirmed by almost all participants. Whilst they have individual complexities, generally they are all seeking additional support to help them understand the civilian world, and in particular, to help them understand, firstly, why they do not fit into this new world immediately, and secondly, what they need to do in order to fit into it going forward. However, there was still no indication that this helped improve job satisfaction in post-service employment. It did, however, contribute to the participants being able to obtain post-service employment, and therefore was an important step in their transition.