Proud to help veterans find themselves in farming and growing

That was the message from TIAH as our chief executive, Stephen Jacob, signed the Armed Forces Covenant in January.

TIAH’s pledges for the Covenant were developed in partnership with Daisy Coleman, Armed Forces Engagement lead at Mission Community.

The signing followed TIAHs first ex-armed forces event, a discussion titled ‘Armed Forces to Work Forces’ held on the Farmers Guardian Live stage at LAMMA 2025.

Many benefits to hiring veterans

The discussion featured Mission Community’s James Cameron, Cultura Connect’s Tom Marsh, veteran and Easton College Farm’s operations officer James Price, veteran and agricultural engineer Will Foster, and Tallis Amos Group recruitment coordinator Guy Bunting.

TIAH head of partnerships Tess Howe moderated the panel and teased out some important and often little-known benefits of employing a veteran. These included the fact that employers are not required to pay the first year’s National Insurance contributions when hiring a veteran and that employers can advertise jobs for free with the Armed Forces Careers Transitions Partnership.

Talent pool with real leadership and communication skills

All members of the panel were keen to promote the values that veterans can bring to farming and growing businesses, including how the extensive training they’ve had in their military careers often provided them with excellent leadership and communication skills, unparalleled problem-solving capabilities and resilience.

Through our Covenant pledges, TIAH will demonstrate our commitment to those who have or are transitioning out of the armed forces. This will be achieved by promoting the fact that we are an Armed Forces-friendly organisation, raising awareness of employment schemes aimed at the Armed Forces Community and encouraging our members to offer work placements and insight days to veterans and the Armed Forces community.

One of TIAH’s first actions since signing the Covenant was the publication of our Armed Forces to Work Forces landing page for ex-armed forces personnel and their families. We hope this will be a dynamic offering, signposting to a growing offering of programmes and support schemes for those in the armed forces talent pool looking to work in agriculture and horticulture.