Education Levels Of New Recruit To Armed Forces

[Gromit]

// the minimum entry requirement for new recruits [in the armed forces] is "entry level 2", which is the equivalent to the standard expected of a seven- or eight-year-old in literacy and numeracy. //

I found that rather shocking. Do you?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-23346693

[DJHawkes]

those who don't make it physically into the armed forces could always apply to be a prison warden. There isn;t the same level of physical fitness or strength required and the evaluation does not inlcude yomping in the brecons,

[Sharingan]

That's clearly something which needs addressing, if the army can make use of them I'm sure they can be useful in other areas. There are scores of completely unskilled jobs or manual jobs, but the crux of it is that the majority of these people should not be so unskilled at the end of 12 tears of education, and we need to address that problem.

[ichkeria]

"A colleague I spoke to recently thought that Chile was near China and the Falklands were near Gibraltar, but then I expect nothing less from people whose main interests are TOWIE, Real Housewives Of Orange County, tanning salons and Hello! magazine. "

That shocking lack of knowledge isn't confined to people of low intelligence or those who allegedly are obsessed with "popular" culture"

I have a friend who is brilliant at quizzes but is plainly not all that bright. I also work with colleagues who are very intelligent and highly qualified yet struggle with crossword clues such as "City in Yorkshire (5)" (L----)

So "knowing stuff" while useful, and intelligence, also useful of course, are not always the same.

[B00]

That's what I said on pg1 Sharingan, and apologies for getting your name wrong :-)

[bazwillrun]

"Well, it depends upon their function in the army.

The main function of a sqaddie is to do what he is told.....not easy in modern times....and that takes little in terms of literacy and numeracy.

Seems fine to me. "

and that boils down to fight , whether in a defensive, offensive or both role.
everything else is just a by product to make/help them do it better.

how "intelligent" do the military want their "cannon fodder" to be, and no thats not a dig or joke, because at the end of the day thats what the majority of the military is made up of.

Intelligent people tend to question , not something the miltary really want in a lot of situations, but as sqad said , just to do as theyre told and follow orders.

Within reason a lack of certain skills suits the military because then they have a a blank canvas to work with and they can mould them to suit with little trouble.

[Booldawg]

Maybe we will need more people like Brian Hanrahan to assist; 'I counted them all out, and then I counted them back'

[bazwillrun]

Assuming his counting was correct !

[Octavius]

So these young boys and girls who are academically challenged but have a second chance in the army....who stand an extremely low chance of getting employment in the private particulalry in current times... what do you expect them to do? Live jobless off the state?

This attitude of smug intellectual supremacy based solely on a few popular TV programmes is quite sickening really.

[LoftyLottie]

'Cannon Fodder' Basil is what I refrained from saying but what I meant.

[LoftyLottie]

Chill Doubt, it was tongue in cheek about myself, but 'most of the population' was a silly thing to say.

Actually I admire the lads and lassies who sign up for the forces and who have difficulty in reaching standards or getting jobs. I just hope they think very hard or take a lot of advice before they do so, so that they really understand what they are taking on board.

[naomi24]

//I just hope they think very hard or take a lot of advice before they do so, so that they really understand what they are taking on board. //

As I said, education doesn't equate to common sense. Some might be lacking in academia - but that doesn't mean they're stupid, or incapable of making informed choices.

[meglet]

After his last tour of Afghan my husband worked as an army recruiter for a year until it was outsourced to Capita in April 2013. I have just asked him about this and he says some did fail but this was mainly the non-British applicants. This is more about weeding out the non-educated non-native English speaking. Even if they passed if he thought they weren't up to the job they wouldn't make it through to the next stage.

[jim360]

Education may not equal common sense -- but it can't hurt.

[meglet]

Sorry, I should have said this more about weeding out the non-educated non-native English speaking who weren't suitable.

[ChillDoubt]

I guessed LL, that's why I made no reference to your age! LOL

I've no doubt that potential recruits have every idea what they are letting themselves in for, there is plenty of media coverage and programmes about present deployments of HM Forces and all that that entails.

[LoftyLottie]

Naomi, I was not exactly saying that lack of formal education makes them thick, but depth of thinking is linked to intelligence and know of several young men who have not thought very deeply before going into the forces.

[meglet]

ChillDoubt they are told to expect deployment within 3 years of joining up.

[LoftyLottie]

Informative media coverage by Army Careers is obviously biased in favour of joining up.

[jake-the-peg]

Doesn't bode well for the 'Troops to teachers' program does it

I am relieved to see that there is meant to be a qualification level before ex-service personnel qualify for it

It doesn't solve the fundamental problems when these low academic achievers returning to civillian life

[Sharingan]

That's okay Boo I knew you didn't mean it to be ' funny', and yeah I couldn't agree with you more, everyone who goes to school should at least be basically numerate and literate before they leave and if they are not then something has to be done about that.