Amanda McCue has dedicated much of her career working to understand, support, advocate for and find meaningful employment opportunities for members of the military community, including military partners, transitioning military members and veterans.
Since 2010 she has been involved in the military spouse employment space in Australia, the UK and the USA, and has worked with a range of employers, state and national governments, non-profit groups and other stakeholders to understand the core issues and find solutions to these challenges. As an ADF partner herself, she has a firsthand understanding of the unique challenges faced by this cohort in finding meaningful employment.
After living in the USA and seeing firsthand the employment support offered to US military spouses, she decided to be proactive in improving the support provided to ADF partners. In 2017 she was awarded a Churchill Fellowship to undertake applied research in this field. She travelled to the USA, UK and Canada to examine their approaches to military spouse employment to inform policy and program design and improve the employment outcomes of Australian Defence Force spouses and partners. Her report and subsequent work have been utilised by a variety of national and international stakeholders, and raised awareness of this cohort in the public eye.
Alongside her private business as a career development practitioner and consultant with company Career Swag, where she focusses on assisting the military community, she consistently undertakes a range of volunteer roles and activities to further advocate for the cause of military partner employment beyond the individual level.
Amanda has actively pursued opportunities to inform policy and program design and to move the needle on partner employment in Australia, as well as opportunities to connect with advocates and service providers around the world to share information and resources and work together on shared issues.
Congratulations Amanda!