Judge’s View, Ren Kapur MBE: What do judges look for in a nomination?
September 25, 2018
New research highlights challenges Veterans face in becoming self-employed
October 16, 2018
It seems like just yesterday I met with Rt.Hon the Lord Young of Grantham to discuss the creation of X-Forces Enterprise to support members of the Armed Forces community transition through enterprise. Fast forward 5 years and I with Lord Young opening the London Stock Exchange alongside our guests Defence Secretary of State MP Gavin Williamson and CEO of the London Stock Exchange, David Schwimmer, XFE beneficiary Richard Tucker amongst others. #5yearsofXFE and what a 5 years it has been!
X-Forces Enterprise is now an award-winning community interest company and has supported over 1250 people from the Armed Forces community into entrepreneurship and lent over £12.5million in seed funding. We have engaged 1027 beneficiaries in training since XFE’s 4th birthday through delivering 8961 hours of training. 82% of our beneficiaries are Service Leavers, 11% are Veterans, Spouses, Reservists or Dependants, and importantly, 7% are from the WIS community. I can also proudly announce that 29% of our beneficiaries are female and 33.6% of those we have supported include spouses and family members.
The support for our beneficiaries over the past year would not have been possible without our stakeholders: charity, big business and government. As our Patron, Lord Young said: ‘It is the partnership between large companies and our start-ups that has been the secret of our success along with the enthusiasm and determination of all involved with XFE’. I am so grateful for all the support we have received and it was a fantastic day, from start to finish.
Click here to watch the 5years of XFE video.
For more information on our #5yearsofXFE celebrations, please read more on our X-Forces Enterprise blog: https://www.x-forces.com/xfe-celebrates-five-years/
In addition to celebrating our 5th anniversary, we also released our joint report into ‘Self-employment in the Armed Forces community’ in conjunction with The Institute for Employment Research at the University of Warwick, and defence technology company QinetiQ on behalf of Forces in Mind Trust. To find out more about the findings of the report read our blog: https://www.x-forces.com/veterans-self-employment-report/
