Skipton Building Society (SBS) is a proud signatory of the Armed Forces Covenant and recognises the invaluable contribution of service personnel, veterans – and importantly their families – to our country. In re-signing the Covenant in 2023 we committed to ensuring that the Armed Forces Community is treated with fairness and respect in our workplace.
Here David Travis, Skipton Group Secretary and General Counsel, explains what that means in practical terms:
By looking internally at our recruitment, people policies and support networks we are making sure we do what we say when people join us. Supporting forces family members with employment is important to Skipton Building Society because they face unique challenges, such as frequent relocations, career disruptions, and the demands of military life. By offering job opportunities, flexible working arrangements, and career development, we help them build stable, fulfilling careers. This not only benefits them but also strengthens our workforce by bringing in resilient, adaptable, and highly skilled individuals.
A next step in our commitment to the Covenant is to develop early careers access for those leaving the cadets with an interest in a career in finance, or one of our enabling functions. We have previously welcomed apprentices into our legal and accounting teams. Whilst we are developing our early careers and apprenticeship schemes we are delighted to be able to use our apprenticeship levy to help others to offer these valuable opportunities.
We are also committed to extending this support out into the communities we have served since 1853. We have developed financial education sessions to run with Cadet Detachments to support them with skills for life. We have offered practical support to the cadet movement through the donation of laptops to support delivery of learning. Whether through volunteering, donations or education we look forward to continuing our support of the cadet movement which does so much good for our young people.
We have also been honoured to speak to Junior Soldiers at the Army Foundation College in Harrogate about money management and Forces Friendly financial products and are regularly reviewing our products to see how we can best support our armed forces.
We are incredibly proud and excited to be the headline sponsor for Armed Forces Day in Scarborough. Our branch in Scarborough is the busiest branch in our network and has been part of the community for such a long time. We know what an important, and moving, event this is for the town and the thousands of visitors who will make the trip. We can’t wait to join you there.
Thank you to Skipton Building Society for sponsoring Scarborough Armed Forces Day 2025.