Education and Training Foundation
Source: gov.uk (2025-11-10)

We, the undersigned, commit to honour the Armed Forces Covenant and support the Armed Forces Community. We recognise the value Serving Personnel, both Regular and Reservists, Veterans and military families contribute to our business and our country.

The Armed Forces Covenant

An enduring covenant between the people of the United Kingdom, Her Majesty’s Government and all those who serve or have served in the Armed Forces of the Crown and their families

The first duty of Government is the defence of the realm. Our Armed Forces fulfil that responsibility on behalf of the Government, sacrificing some civilian freedoms, facing danger and, sometimes, suffering serious injury or death as a result of their duty. Families also play a vital role in supporting the operational effectiveness of our Armed Forces. In return, the whole nation has a moral obligation to the members of the Naval Service, the Army and the Royal Air Force, together with their families. They deserve our respect and support, and fair treatment.

Those who serve in the Armed Forces, whether Regular or Reserve, those who have served in the past, and their families, should face no disadvantage compared to other citizens in the provision of public and commercial services. Special consideration is appropriate in some cases, especially for those who have given most such as the injured and the bereaved.

This obligation involves the whole of society: it includes voluntary and charitable bodies, private organisations, and the actions of individuals in supporting the Armed Forces. Recognising those who have performed military duty unites the country and demonstrates the value of their contribution. This has no greater expression than in upholding this Covenant.

Section 1: Principles of the Armed Forces Corporate Covenant

1.1 We Education and Training Foundation will endeavour in our business dealings to uphold the key principles of the Armed Forces Covenant, which are:
- no member of the Armed Forces Community should face disadvantage in the provision of public and commercial services compared to any other citizen;
- and in some circumstances that special treatment may be appropriate especially for the injured or bereaved.
Section 2: Demonstrating our commitment

2.1 Education and Training Foundation recognises the value serving personnel, reservists, veterans and military families bring to our business. We will seek to uphold the principles of the Armed Forces Covenant, by pledging to the following:
- Armed Forces Friendly
- UK Service Veterans And Leavers
- UK Service Spouses And Partners
- Flexible Leave For Spouses
- UK Reservists
- Armed Forces Day
- Discounts
We also pledge the following:

Seeking to support the professional learning and development of Armed Service Personnel through the Education and Training Foundation Workforce Development offer. seeking to support the resettlement, training (inc ITE) and employment of veterans, young and old, to include transition to Further Education and Skills technical teaching careers. and working with the Career Transition Partnership (CTP), in order to establish a tailored employment pathway for Service Leavers; endeavouring to offer a degree of flexibility when studying their ITE programme or any other workforce development support offer, through Further Forces or any other ETF programmes striving to support the employment of Service Leaver colleagues and partners who are also veterans seeking to support our employees who choose to be members of the Reserve forces, including by accommodating their training and deployment where possible; offering support to veterans in terms of professional learning and development employed in a diverse range of settings within the FE sector, where possible; aiming to actively participate in Armed Forces Day; offering a Society for Education and Training Corporate Membership to the Armed Services that would allow individuals to have discounted membership offering a concession on Society for Education and Training Membership to any individuals earning less than half the average salary of those employed in the Further Education and Skills sector. Seek to support Armed Forces personnel and veterans, at home and abroad, to access flexibly delivered high quality professional learning and development

2.2 We will publicise these commitments through our literature and/or on our website, setting out how we will seek to honour them and inviting feedback from the Service community and our customers on how we are doing.