This week we’re joined by Steve Leach who has served as a member of Alexander Mann Solutions’ Executive Team since 2005.  Having joined the business in 1999, he&apos;s has held a variety of operational, management and executive roles and is currently Managing Director, UK & Ireland.  Passionate about enabling the AMS team to be the best they can be, Steve’s focus is working with our clients to develop relationships and solutions to enable success through the delivery of innovative, value creating Talent Acquisition and Management solutions.  A recognised thought leader, Steve is a regular contributor to news articles and fundamentally believes that people are the foundation of success.We hope you enjoy the episode! 

RECRUIT FOR SPOUSES PODCAST

RECRUIT FOR SPOUSES PODCAST - AMS

The number 13 is unlucky for some... Not for us though because this week we&apos;re talking to Jo Salter, the UK&apos;s very first female fighter jet pilot! Jo Salter flew the Tornado ground attack aircraft with 617 Squadron in the Royal Air Force. She later became an inspirational speaker and in November 2016 she joined PwC as a director and Chief of Staff, responsible for digital capabilities within the People and Organisation practice.Jo has first hand experience of challenge and change, requiring tenacity, determination, flexibility and an excellent sense of humour. She&apos;s backed by a degree in Electronic Systems Engineering and an MBA. Her inspirational speeches have introduced her to a vast range of businesses and, whether it be 25 at a breakfast briefing in The Ivy or 3000 at an international conference centre, Jo entertains, challenges and inspires. She is also the author of two books focusing on using personal energy for high achievement.We hope you enjoy our chat with Jo! 

RECRUIT FOR SPOUSES PODCAST - UK’S FIRST FEMALE FIGHTER PILOT

This week, as part of our Diversity Month, we are honoured to be joined by Penny Mansfield CBE who is the director of One Plus One.One Plus One is a UK charity that creates resources that strengthen relationships.Relationships are as diverse and as complicated as they are necessary and fulfilling.Whether romantic, platonic or professional, you&apos;ll find Penny&apos;s insights and knowledge timeless and important - especially in our current climate. Penny and her diverse team help couples and parents through a range of web-services.Their online learning equips frontline workers with the skills to offer timely relationship support in a face to face setting.Based on the latest research evidence, their work promotes early action in relationship support.Aiming to equip people with the skills and knowledge to work on relationship issues before they become entrenched. The result is couples, parents and children who are happier, healthier, and more successful."We really hope you enjoy the episode! 

RECRUIT FOR SPOUSES PODCAST - ONE PLUE ONE

On this weeks episode we&apos;re talking to military spouse Louise Fetigan who is the founder of the charity Little Troopers. Louise herself served in the British Army and saw active service in Kosovo. Her husband is also currently a serving soldier and has undertaken seven operational tours of duty since their daughter was born in 2003. Louise is passionate about helping all the Little Troopers at home through the anxiety of deployment, the process of moving house and school frequently and keeping parent and child connected having experienced first hand the impact it can have. We talk to her about what is changing now and how the pandemic has affected our military families. We hope you enjoy the episode and please share it far and wide! 

RECRUIT FOR SPOUSES PODCAST - LITTLE TROOPERS

Our guest this week is Heather Sharp from Forces Wives Challenge.Heather graduated from the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst in 2005, commissioning into the Royal Engineers. Throughout her 10 year career in the Regular Army, she had the opportunity to deploy to Afghanistan and take part in expeditions around the world - enjoying all the opportunities for adventure and travel that a military career offers. In 2007, Heather married a fellow serving officer and when their family grew, the pressures of bringing up a young family meant that in 2014 she took the difficult decision to leave. Heather now saw life on the other side of the fence and found it much tougher. Her eyes were opened to the incredible sacrifices made by those that hold the fort at home and she really wanted to give something back by providing opportunities for this community to have a taste of the exciting adventures, teamwork and sense of belonging she had enjoyed in the military. And so the Forces Wives Challenge (FWC) was born, seeking to unite women with partners in the military through adventure and challenge.Since its creation in 2018, FWC has completed a number of exciting adventures from the flagship expedition to Chile where they climbed the highest volcano in the world, to the iconic Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, the National 3 Peaks and Pen y Fan in the Brecon Beacons. FWC is growing rapidly with over the 600 members nationally and their events having raised over £30,000 for charity!We hope you enjoy the episode.

RECRUIT FOR SPOUSES PODCAST - FORCES WIVES CHALLENGE

This week we are talking to Angela Forbes and Bernie Graham from BuildForce about why networking is such an important element to career progression and transition.Angela Forbes gained a Bovis scholarship in 1997 as an undergraduate Commercial Manager and has been with the Lendlease business for 23 years. She has also been a Commercial Director in the London construction business for the last 8 years.Angela created the Lendlease ex-military initiative in 2008, She&apos;s an ambassador of the construction industry within the Armed Forces and was a founding partner of BuildForce at its inception in 2011.In addition, Angela has been a non-executive director of a housing provider and social regeneration charity; a board director of Be Onsite – a not-for-profit company dedicated to helping disadvantaged people and a school governor at Chobham Academy in Stratford, London (a Harris Federation school)."Bernie Graham is a Psychologist and Director of Mental Health Support. He&apos;s worked in the mental health field for over 25 years and has extensive experience of supporting people with ‘severe and enduring’ mental health problems. Staff training has been an intrinsic part of his work throughout his career. Bernie is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine and a member of the British Psychological Society.In 2006, Bernie launched MHS in order to focus on delivering a range of courses and workshops aimed at raising awareness of mental health issues and how to address them.Bernie offers 1-2-1 counselling and group workshops to the BuildForce programme and runs regular stress management workshops for our veterans, interactive workshops exploring the relationship between stress and mental health enabling participants to recognise the signs/symptoms of stress, anxiety and depression; relating this to a construction site and how this can affect site safety."We hope you enjoy the episode and if you would like to find out any more information about BuildForce, just head to their website - www.buildforce.org.uk 

RECRUIT FOR SPOUSES PODCAST - BUILDFORCE

Our guest in this episode is Charlotte Sjoberg, a Communications Director at Virgin.She&apos;s also a Military spouse and talks about the reality of juggling a full-time role for a big Corporate Brand with a young family. She also tells us how she started working for Virgin.Charlotte has been “doing” communications for nearly two decades now – Having cut her teeth in the financial sector including launching and floating one of them, she’s racked up a fair chunk of experience across internal and external communication over the years.Having joined Virgin Red, the Virgin Group’s new rewards club, as Corporate Affairs Director at the beginning of 2020, 2021 sees Charlotte take on a new role within the Virgin family as Communications Director for Virgin UK (alongside her Virgin Red responsibilities too).Living in the middle of nowhere with her two young boys and serving husband, she enjoys the quiet life – which is fortunate during lockdown – giving her plenty of time to support her local vineyards. When she’s not working or entertaining the family, she’s teaching herself to play the piano, dabbles in musical theatre (she used to be a professional tap dance teacher) and eating way too much pasta.

RECRUIT FOR SPOUSES PODCAST - VIRGIN RED

On this episode we&apos;ll be talking to an incredible lady named Emma Spencer who is currently on the front line of the NHS fighting Covid-19 as a resuscitation nurse. On top of this she&apos;s a military spouse with two young children under five and to make things just that little bit harder, her husband is deployed on a 6 month tour in Somalia.We&apos;ll also be talking about a career within the NHS with Gemma Wright who is the programme lead for NHS employers. She&apos;ll be telling us all about the NHS step into health programme.We hope you enjoy this episode and please once again share far and wide.

RECRUIT FOR SPOUSES PODCAST - NHS STEP INTO HEALTH

Our guest this week is Karen Sampford, an Actress based in Oxfordshire.  She featured in the feel good film of 2020 Military Wives where she played one of the Choir Members.Karen talks to us about what the film meant to her personally and how it gave her a depth of understanding to the challenges military spouses face.As well as acting her other passion is walking around the countryside with her dog Sadie.We hope you enjoy the episode and as ever if you enjoy it, let us know. It would also be great if you could share it for us.

RECRUIT FOR SPOUSES PODCAST - MILITARY WIVES MOVIE

Our guest this week is Martyn Shaw from our coaching programme.​Martyn is an Operations Planning Team Leader for BAE Systems and he&apos;s one of our many valued volunteer coaches who provides support and guidance to military spouses through our Career AcademyHis commitment and positivity towards the programme has not only supported spouses helping them to achieve their professional goals but it has helped him in his professional career too.​We talk about all of the benefits of having a coach and how it can help you find the career you really want.If you have listened to the series so far we would love to know what you think so please feel free to drop a comment below, write a review or even better share with a friend!We hope you enjoy the episode!

RECRUIT FOR SPOUSES PODCAST - RFS CAREER ACADEMY

This week we are honoured to be joined by Beca Lyne-Pirkis - Cook, Food Writer & Presenter.⁠⁠Beca burst onto our screens in 2013 when she became a semi-finalist in the 4th series of The Great British Bake Off. ⁠⁠Since leaving the tent, Beca has gone on to have her own cookery TV series on S4C, 2 cookery books - Bwyd Beca/My Food which was out in 2017, and her latest book - Feeding My Army which was published in September 2020. ⁠⁠Beca can often be heard on the radio waves as a guest talking about different food topics as well as guest presenting every so often on the Breakfast Show on BBC Radio Cymru 2.⁠⁠Beca has taught at cookery schools across the UK, appeared at many food festivals and is a regular at Borough Market in London in the demo kitchen as well as writing recipes of the market’s website. Beca is also on the advisory committee for the Food Standard’s Agency in Wales as well as being an Ambassador for the Welsh Govt : Healthy Wales campaign. ⁠⁠On top of all that, Beca is also studying full time for a BSc in Human Nutrition and Dietetics at Cardiff Metropolitan University.⁠⁠In her spare(!) time, Beca enjoys running, swimming, cycling and CrossFit and has completed 7 marathons and an ultra-marathon to date.⁠⁠Beca is also a very proud military wife to her husband Matt and is Mam to Mari (8) and Alys (6).⁠We hope you enjoy the episode!

RECRUIT FOR SPOUSES PODCAST - BECA LYNE-PIRKIS

In this episode we welcome the incredible Gemma Morgan!Trained at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, Gemma was the first woman to be awarded the Carmen Sword from HRH Princess Royal, for outstanding performance as a young officer. A former international athlete, Captaining Wales in lacrosse and competing across three World Cups. Gemma was awarded the ‘Most Valuable Player in Europe’ at the 1997 Championships. Gemma is an Ambassador for the Charity ‘Help for Heroes’, supporting wounded, injured and sick British Armed Forces Veterans.  Part of the BBC TV documentary ‘Gareth Malone and the Invictus Games Choir’, and collaborated with HRH Prince Harry and Warner Brothers in the promotion of ‘Dunkirk’, the movie. Having suffered post-traumatic stress as a result of her military service, Gemma campaigns to promote better mental health awareness in organisations today. We&apos;ll be talking about Gemma&apos;s journey through her mental health and how she has overcome one of the greatest battles with her own mind.. 

RECRUIT FOR SPOUSES PODCAST - GEMMA MORGAN

In this episode we welcome the formidable Lucy Feltham Leonelli, who was introduced to Recruit for Spouses back in 2011 by the charity Heropreneurs. Lucy, an executive search specialist had her eyes opened to underemployment in the military spouse community when she first started working with RFS and was determined to help raise awareness.We talk about the Journey from helping RFS approach No 10 to her move to LA, her tragic accident where she very nearly lost her life to riding naked on a rollercoaster for her book ‘FOMO’We know you’ll love this podcast which talks about life, facing your fears and not missing out...

RECRUIT FOR SPOUSES PODCAST - LUCY FELTHAM LEONELLI

We are incredibly excited to bring you the first ever episode!It’s a chance for you to get to know who we are and what we do and also to find out what you can expect the podcast to be about.We have some brilliant guests lined up for you over the next few weeks and months so please sit back, relax and enjoy!Oh and please share, we are so passionate about the content of this podcast and how it can help military spouses that we want as many people as possible to hear it! Thanks 

RECRUIT FOR SPOUSES PODCAST - INTRODUCTION WITH HELEDD & CHRIS

A brand new podcast hosted by Chris Keen and Heledd Kendrick. Every fortnight we'll be highlighting the amazing work that Recruit For Spouses do. We'll find out how they help military spouses to find employment and we'll talk to some of those incredible spouses along the way.