Annabel Andrews finds out how employers and employees can benefit from the training and experience of working with the Territorial Army.

*The reservist's view*

David Baker, a senior network technician at Anglian Water, is a corporal with the Royal Anglian Regiment. His unit is based in Norwich and he has been in the reserve forces for around 20 years. He was mobilised to Afghanistan in 2007.

"When I left the regular army 20 years ago, I wanted to keep my hand in.

The sort of things that I come across in the Territorial Army (TA) are exactly the same as the things at Anglian. My job is very reactive. I apply myself to ever-changing situations, so in my case I think the two roles work well together. But for a lot of people it's like chalk and cheese, and I think that makes a great deal of difference to people as well. If you sit in an office all day and you're data crunching or something, and then go out on a weekend or evening or for six months in Afghanistan and do something completely different, it is good.

In reality, time is the most difficult thing about combining the two - as well as work and the TA I have a family and everything else. It's just finding time to fit everything in.

When I went to Afghanistan, work was very, very supportive. Every year they're very supportive. They give me two extra weeks leave for our annual camp each year so I don't have to use my own holiday time for that.

After deployment, getting back to work was quite a nice rest, to be completely honest. I came back and I should have had about two-and-a-half months post tour leave. After about three weeks I was bored so I went back to work.

Of course, some of it is difficult because of what you've been doing. I'm infantry TA, so what we did in 2007 was very hands on. I went in as a mortar fire controller, so I was right on the front line. That's a little bit of a change.

But my job is very reactive, and while I don't end up shooting people every day, you have to get a grip and not mess about and get in there and sort things out. I guess the two jobs combine quite well in reality.

Don't believe all the stories you read. It's not like Dad's Army. From my point of view, because I've been in the regulars as well, I'd say the TA is all the good bits of the regular army without all the rubbish."

*The company's view*

Tim Corry is the director of Sabre (Supporting Britain's Reservists and their Employers).

"The benefits for the employer of having an employee in the TA can be varied, depending on what that individual does in the business. From the reservist's point of view, he gets a lot of training and experience that wouldn't necessarily be learnt in the business. Certainly, most reservists will gain training in spades, especially core skills such as management, communication skills and a can-do attitude.

That's valuable to the business, and the business doesn't have to pay for that because that's what military service does to that reservist. Those transferable skills come back into the workplace. More specifically, it may be that the reservist is involved in some technical training, for example, in IT, first aid or HGV driving, so that employee may pick those up and that could be valuable to the business as well. There are hard skills and core skills.

A lot of reservists don't go into military roles that are comparable to their civilian roles. They might become general soldiers, so their civilian experience is not much value to them. But in some of the niche trades, particularly medical and things like linguists and that sort of thing, clearly the military benefits from that because they have people who've learnt their trade in a civilian environment and they bring that skill set with them to use in the military.

There are people who would specifically be recruited to do specialist reconstruction type jobs in Afghanistan, for instance. I know going forward the government is quite keen to tap into some of the specific skills that reservists have from their civilian employment and use the specific jobs in the reconstruction part of what's going on in Afghanistan. If that all moves forward, utility people could find themselves highly in demand."