Member Article

Army reservist builds new career

A reservist Royal Engineer bomb disposal expert has swapped IEDs for housing plans after joining the UK’s leading housebuilder, Persimmon Homes.

Luke Homer, 44 from Tongham, in Farnham, joins Persimmon Homes Southern’s technical department as a layout planner, where he will be responsible for all aspects of planning developments from house layouts to the location of roads and amenities.

Based at the Camberley office, Luke brings a wealth of skills to the role having trained as an architectural consultant during a ten year gap from the army.

Having joined the Royal Engineers in 1989, Luke spent seven years serving in the armed forces as a bomb disposal engineer. In 1996 he left the army, retraining and working as an architectural consultant before rejoining as a reservist in 2006, specialising again in bomb disposal and requesting deployment to Afghanistan where he served for six months.

Luke continues to serve as a reservist but is relishing his role at Persimmon. He says: “This is my first time working for a housing developer and it is fascinating to be part of taking a development from a blank sheet of paper to a successful planning application.

“A planning role is very different to searching for and disposing of bombs but the work ethic, the discipline needed and time management are all skills that serve equally well in both professions.”

Persimmon Homes is actively recruiting ex-military personnel into its business and recently employed a specialist armed forces recruitment professional. The housebuilder is looking for service leavers to bring their transferable skills into many roles throughout the business.

Persimmon is embarking on the recruitment drive having seen visitor levels to developments rise by ten per cent and private sales rise by 25 per cent in the first 15 weeks of 2014, ahead of 2013 figures.

Resource manager, Tommy Watson said: “To meet customer demand we need a robust recruitment programme to bring qualified people into the business. There is a diverse range of opportunities currently available including bricklayers, carpenters and ground workers as well as site management roles and sales positions.

““We recognise that a lot of people leaving the armed forces have transferrable skills and Luke is an excellent example of that.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by kathy .