Langar, Nottinghamshire, England: John Deere has seen an influx of applications to its Military Hiring Programme after hosting a bespoke event for service leavers involving dealers from across the United Kingdom.

Held at the company’s UK headquarters, the event gave armed forces personnel the chance to have detailed discussions about what the next stage of their career could look like working with one the world’s biggest machinery manufacturers.

The ground-breaking resettlement programme for military service personnel offers new career opportunities working on some of the world’s most advanced agricultural and professional grounds care products.

Members of the armed forces have been identified as ideal candidates to bring their unique skill sets and experience to technician roles within UK and Ireland dealerships as many have already worked with systems and products similar to those used by John Deere.

Those who enrol onto the programme are put into contact with an individual from the John Deere network who have resettled themselves, who will guide them through the next steps which includes free training courses before finding employment with a John Deere dealer.

“What was really successful about the day was the amount of conversation between military personnel and dealers,” said Allan Cochran, Branch Training Manager for John Deere, an Executive Member of the Asian Golf Industry Federation.

“Everybody wanted to talk, everybody wanted to engage with the event, and I think everyone that was there, both military and dealers, got something out of it,” added Cochran.

The event drew a positive number of applications to the Military Hiring Programme, with 23 ex-servicemen now waiting for the next step to start their new career with John Deere.

The Military Hiring Programme has drawn interest from across the country, with attendees travelling from not just the surrounding Midlands, but also from as far as Cornwall and Scotland.

Cochran said: “To have people coming from all the country is really great to see. We have dealers in all corners of the nation, and with the largest proportion of people wanting to resettle wherever they are based now, we can make that happen.”

As well as dealers and staff, attendees also had the opportunity to listen to those who had been through the Military Hiring Programme themselves and were now a part of the dealership network.

Ex-servicemen Martin Frodsham, Will Foster and Mike Rogers spoke about their journey and what their career has been like since leaving the armed forces and becoming technicians.

Attendees also heard from John Deere instructors who showed them the machines that they would be working on should they apply to join John Deere, with a focus on precision agriculture and what the future looks like for agricultural technology.