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British Army On A Push To Fill Over 10,000 Jobs With New Recruits

12 Jan 2014

British Army On A Push To Fill Over 10,000 Jobs With New Recruits

The British Army has launched another massive recruitment drive to fill over 10,000 jobs with new, enthusiastic recruits. Dubbed ‘More Than Meets The Eye’, the new campaign aims to attract young people who might not have realised just how many different types of job roles there are within the army.

The army is spending £3 million in an effort to raise awareness of the sheer variety of job descriptions on offer if you join up with them - and they are using the e4s website to recruit young people for 4-week introductions to working for the army this summer (see the link at the foot of this article to apply for the Army Summer Challenge).

As well as trying to attract students and other young people through the employment4students website, the Army is also showing adverts in newspapers, on radio, television and at cinema halls to reach their target recruitment market for new roles.

The current round of recruitment by the British Army is their third salvo in the last twelve months as our nation’s forces seek to fill new positions. Most of the new jobs are with the Army Reserves (which used to be known as the Territorial Army - or TA), where the Army is looking to increase headcount from the current levels of around 19,000 to something more like 30,000. There are, however, also many positions for new recruits amongst the regular army too.

Counter-intuitively, the new campaign comes as the Army aims to reduce overall troop numbers by almost 20 per cent from 100,000 to just over 80,000. The Army stresses, however, that it is essential that they continue to bring young new recruits into the forces to build a strong base for the future.

Admitting that finding new recruits during a period where overall numbers are falling was challenging, Defence Secretary Philip Hammond, said: “I want to dispel forever the myth that somehow the Army isn't recruiting. Yes, the regular Army will be smaller in the future than it has been in the past and, yes, there will be one further round of redundancies unfortunately, but that does not mean that the army is not recruiting.”

Displaying a willingness to recruit from the ranks of the existing workforce, Army recruiters have pointed to a recent survey they commissioned which suggests that almost 1 in 4 people in the UK are not satisfied with their current job.

The December 2013 survey of 2,000 people revealed that 30 per cent of the public were unhappy with their current wages and 28 per cent believed (incorrectly) that the Army Reserves were unpaid. Over a quarter of respondents said their current job lacked ‘excellent training and personal development’ and just fewer than 1 in 5 wished for a job where you got paid while working towards qualifications. The Army hopes that its new ‘More Than Meets The Eye’ campaign can persuade a few of these unfulfilled employees into their own ranks.

Emphasising what the Army can offer young people, British Army Officer, General Sir Peter Anthony Wall, the Chief of General Staff, said: “The Army offers people unique opportunities for challenge and adventure, both at home and overseas, during peacetime and on operations. It develops personal qualities that are key to success in any walk of life: leadership, judgement, determination, and physical stamina.”

The Ministry of Defence will this month a new online application process which it hopes will make it easier to join up with the British Army. It will also make changes to medical and fitness tests which could allow more people to enlist with the forces.

If you want to be a part of the British Army then take a look at the opportunities they are advertising right now on the e4s student jobs website. You can apply through our site for the 2014 Army Summer Challenge and earn up to £1,008 for 4 weeks with the British forces.

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