Are you a student concerned about graduating and then not being able to get a job? Worried that you’ll never be able to pay off your student debt? Fancy a job with an attractive salary and career progression? Well log-on here to hear about the numerous career opportunities found within the British Army.

According to a new survey, two thirds of students have yet to decide on a career path. Good pay, good pensions and job security to be top priorities, so it’s no wonder that eight in ten are worried about their future prospects right now. It’s perhaps not surprising either that more and more university leavers are looking at career in the Forces as a way to fulfil all three of those essential requirements.

The British Army is one of the UK’s largest employers, with over 100,000 trained staff – with employment opportunities in 140 trades including: combat, engineering, logistics support, intelligence and communications, HR and finance, medical, musical and ceremonial. So if you don’t fancy front line combat there are numerous other opportunities.

The pay and benefits package is highly competitive – with graduate Officer cadet salary starting at over £23,000 a year – including a final salary pension scheme and subsidised food and accommodation, plus free medical and dental care. If you want to hear more about a job with immediate opportunities for responsibility, plus the chance to travel and take part in sporting activities and adventurous training, log on. Joining us in the studio to shed more light on the ins and outs of MOD life are Capt Donna Greaves and Capt Andrew Lawson.

H: Mark Rise, host
D: Captain Donna Greaves
A: Captain Andrew Lawson

H: Hello there, welcome to the Education Show, I’m Mark Rise. With graduate employment training schemes at an all-time low, university leavers are increasingly looking to the public sector now for careers that offer both security and satisfaction. In 2009 alone, the British Army has seen a rise in enquiries from graduates and college leavers wanting to find out more about what it takes to be an officer in the armed forces. Well joining us in the studio today are Capt Donna Greaves and Capt Andrew Lawson who will be able to tell us more about career development and progression opportunities. And of course we’re live today, so if you want to get your questions in to Andrew and Donna or you have any comments please use the box on your screen and it will come through to my screen in the studio and we’ll be able to ask them. Welcome guys, you patently enjoy what you do but can you tell us about your individual roles in the army? Donna?

D: Yes at the moment I work in the Royal Logistic Core Headquarters, so I’m privileged to work alongside our director. My role at the moment is as a recruiting officer, and I look after the soldier recruiting statistics and also any soldier recruiting tasks and commitments that we have throughout the year

H: Mainly office-based?

D: It can be, but I do have a team of 16 soldiers that go out round the UK going to different shows, careers fairs etc. So when I do get the chance and I’m not sort of marrying up budgets etc then I’ll go a cross and I’ll check on the soldiers and get involved in what they’re doing. So it’s really interesting and really rewarding

H: Excellent. And Andrew what do you do?

A: Well I’m in the same core as Donna, the Royal Logistic Core. However I’m at what we call the sharp end, where we’re 16 hour assault brigade and particularly my squadron’s attached to three power at the moment, and we do a lot of going away to Afghanistan and various other operations. My particular job is to command something called the combat logistic patrol, and we do all the re-supplies to the forward bases in Fuerta

H: There are a lot of different roles in the army aren’t there, let’s face it from – well all kinds of different career opportunities. Can we touch on that, because it’s not just a straight soldier, there’s no such thing as just being a soldier really is there?

A: No

D: No coming through as a graduate you would come through normally as an officer, so you’d go through your officer training at Sanders in Camberley. After that there’s so many different cat badges that you can choose from, and each of them has different roles within the Royal Logistic Core for example there are so many different areas that you can work in, from supply, distribution, transport – you can work on the Port Maritime side. And Andy’s work with the air assault side so there’s scope to work in so many different fields, but first and foremost you’re a manager and a leader

H: Are you saying that there are almost unlimited career progression opportunities and training opportunities then?

A: Yes definitely. I mean when you initially join the army you’ve got this massive big chocolate box of jobs you can do, and if you particularly like one type of job you can continue within that particular career field. However if a few years down the line you think ok it’s time for a change, like myself, you can then move across and do something else

D: Likewise there is the opportunity to mix a civilian job with all of the aspects you’ve got within the army – working with the territorial side, so doing it as a part time option rather than a full time career like we have

H: It’s interesting that you mentioned Territorial Army because a lot of people who might think ooh I’d like to try the army but I don’t really know what I’m getting into. Is the TA really a good place to start?

D: Completely, they get all the training opportunities that we do, the adventures training, the qualifications and they get paid to do every day of training that they do, so that if they feel they want to, you know maximise the amount of time they spend with the army, then they’re always getting paid for those opportunities

H: And that way you can see exactly what you’re getting into as well

A: Definitely it’s a really good place to start. If you’re a little bit worried about the army – the commitment side of things – then join the TA, you’re not as tied in and you can have a look what the army’s like and then if you decide the army’s the right thing for you, then you can join the regular army later on

H: You brought it up, let’s talk about tying in because it’s not nearly the big, scary thing that a lot of people would think is it?

D: It’s – basically you can work on 12 months training, because it’s 11 months at Sandhurst, and once you’ve commissioned as an officer in the British Arm you then do three years’ service. So with doing a package of four years you could go through this exceptional you know academy of training, come out the other end as a manager and a leader, and have three years experience working with the British Army and you know serving Queen and country and then by the end of that if you did want to go back to civilian life then you’ve got transferable skills and you know or some experience, and your CV reads you know sort of head and shoulders above everyone else’s

H: Well we’ll talk about paying conditions in a few moments time because I know that’s something that you’re very keen on stressing and I think that when you’re watching you will be surprised and pleasantly surprised. But let me just bring up a survey, because according to a survey that the army have just conducted, it was interesting to see that two thirds of students have yet to decide on any kind of career path, yet 8 in 10 are worried about their future prospect. When did you decide to join the army? It was early in both your cases wasn’t it?

A: Yes I mean me and Donna, we’ve known each other for 12 years now, for me personally I went to the army career’s office at the age of 15 with my friend and they said you know, you’ve got potential to be an officer. From that point I then started to do more and more training. I went to Sandhurst, joined the assault brigade and this is where I am at the moment, so yes – it’s fantastic

H: Excellent, and how about you Donna because you joined early as well didn’t you?

D: Yes I did – I went through my GCSEs at Brecon high school, in South Wales and I realised quite quickly that I wanted to sort of do quite well for A levels, so I looked into options of sort of joining a sixth form college, Wellbeck sixth form college. So I went with Andy through that route, had my sixth form fees paid for to stay at a residential sixth form college and then after that got sponsored through university as well. So it was very early on that we made that commitment, however all of the areas that attracted me then continue to you know keep me –

H: So under the umbrella question of regret, it really is no regret by the sound of it?

D: No

A: Not at all, not at all

D: We’ve both served for six years now so –

H: And do you see yourself as lifers, do you see yourself as being in the army in ten years time?

A: Do you know what, I never thought I would be, I must admit when I first went to Sandhurst, but whilst I’ve been doing the job, I’ve enjoyed it so much that I’m going to stay in at least 16 years, I’ve made that decision now. I love it so much yes

H: Well let’s talk about pay and conditions because I know it’s one thing that people don’t necessarily think about, but it actually pays really well doesn’t it?

D: Coming through Sandhurst training you’d be on just over £24,000.

H: As a graduate. Now that’s not a bad graduate salary is it, let’s face it

D: Fantastic. And you’ve got all of your accommodation, your food, everything’s paid for so that’s pretty much in your pocket. Once you’ve commissioned you then pick up a rank, to go to your unit, and you’d be sort of nearer sort of £26 / £27,000 which then would progress as you go through training and doing your qualifications

H: And you were talking about training and qualifications but you’re also talking about adventurous training and learning skills that you can get in the army paid for obviously,

D: Yes

H: That in civilian life you would pay a fortune for. I know that you do quite a lot of sailing don’t you?

D: That’s right, I’ve done a day skipper qualification in expeditions, and you can expect to sort of do a normal expedition with the army, cut price, so I think I paid probably about £200 a month sailing to Spain and back, which I could never have afford to have done otherwise. And it was actually my dad that encouraged me to try sailing because I didn’t think I’d have my sea legs but he said you’ll never afford to do this outside of the army, you know, sailing is completely you know out of bounds otherwise to a lot of people. And likewise I’ve done skiing expeditions, ski qualifications and –

H: Fantastic

D: And mountain leader training

H: Excellent, so things that you wouldn’t have tried in civilian life necessarily?

D: And it’s all massively subsidised and they still carry on paying for your food when you’re out there as well so –

H: Oh that can’t be bad can it?

D: No –

H: Let’s talk about pension as well because I know Andrew you wanted to talk about pension because that’s covered very well too isn’t it?

A: Yes I mean like I say the longer you’re in the army the more you look at these other aspects, the other things that keep you in the army

H: Yes because I don’t think your average graduate would necessarily think about pensions but it is certainly worth mentioning

A: Yes it certainly wasn’t on my mind when I joined the army, but as I’m getting a little bit older – believe it or not – it’s very important to me. And I was having a chat with my mum the other day whose been in the health service for x amount of years and she’s about to retire, and she’s going to finish her service on the same pension as I’ll be on at the age of 37, and she’s quite annoyed about that, but that just gives you an indication of just how good the pension is in the army

D: And it’s not even at retirement age either. If you chose to do just nine years of your career, you’d expect you know a chunk of your pension at that stage, so currently it’s £13,500 so just to have that after doing a fair few years in the army but having a fantastic experience, it does help with setting you up you know as you’re leaving, if you do want to leave

H: It certainly does. Well we’ve had some questions in so let’s go to some of the questions that you’ve sent in, and thank you for sending them in. Jimmy Smith says “hello I’m studying English literature, what areas of employment would this degree help with, and does it matter what subject you’ve studied?”

A: Well it doesn’t matter what subject you’ve studied, I mean the mere fact that you’ve got the ability to have done a degree, and you’ve got that education level, stands you in good stead for joining the army. Now English literature in particular would be perfect I’d say for army officers because you do a lot of service writing and your English skills have got to be up to a certain standard, so he’d be perfectly placed to become an officer in any core

D: For example very early on you’d be writing reports on your soldiers because you’re managing them, so everything that they do day-to-day, whether it’s out in the field doing their training, doing their courses, you’d need to put that on paper so they have the prospects to promote at the right time, and it’s how good you are at writing those reports and sort of conveying what they’ve done that allows them those opportunities

H: But overall it’s far less important what degree you do

D: Completely

H: And important that you have the ability to do the degree. Interesting stuff

A: Well that’s not to say, if you’ve got a particular degree, like myself and Donna have both got a degree in management logistics, we’re in the logistic core. We’ve had friends who have done engineering degrees, if you join a particular core, then you can get civilian accreditation as you progress in your career, so it’s also very good from that aspect as well

D: For example if you’ve got an engineering degree and you go towards the Royal Engineers, you could get chartered engineering, so it all sort of builds on itself, and there are institutes that you can join, and gain accreditation

H: So the professions really can take it through and you get the professional qualifications to actually take it through. Fantastic. Now a lot of people will be listening to this, and some people will check out the website and everything else, but Patrick has asked are there open days or graduate days that the army run across the year to find out a bit more about it, and actually get to physically talk to people?

D: Yes each of the different areas within the British Army have recruiting officers which try to attend graduate fairs, university open days, so you will see military stands at different events, so it’s good to keep an eye out for them if you’ve got any questions, but also the different cap badges do officer days so anybody at the moment that’s looking for jobs sort of after graduating, can come and do a two day visit with us, and it’s nothing to do with you know a selection process, it’s basically please come and have a look at what we do. For example we run two-day visits in Camberley in Surrey, and people come along, see PowerPoint presentations, have a go at command tasks which are sort of leadership sort of tests and tasks, and then have dinner in the officer’s mess to try and get a feel of what we do and what we’re all about, and if you like us then sort of come back and –

H: We have mentioned that of course you two both joined young. If you’ve been in civilian life and you’ve been doing a career, maybe there are other things to think about and Jonny has sent us a question that he says “I’m a trained dental assistant but I’m looking for a change of career. Will salaries be taken into consideration when transferring existing skills to the army?” And that’s obviously a concern for anybody whose been doing a job in civilian life

A: There are a number of jobs within the army where that’s taken into account but the vast majority of people go to Sandhurst and we start at the same level, but that’s not to say if you’ve got a particular degree or qualification that you can’t join the army and get the same kind of payscales, because that does happen

D: For example doctors coming in sometimes there’s a bonus available, so I know that quite recently the army was paying sort of £50,000 to encourage civilian doctors to come in and join as regular sort of medics, and that’s an awesome opportunity and it recognises the skills that they have, but somebody who does have, you know, a very good qualification could come up, join the army, see it as a blank canvas again, but enjoy all the benefits as well

H: Well when you talk about benefits, we’ve talked about pay, we’ve talked about benefits, we’ve talked about training, we’ve talked about pension – what about holidays?

D: You get 6 weeks paid leave a year, and if for example you’ve been away with your unit for say up to 6 months on an operational tour, then there’s post-tour leave as well, and pre-tour leave, so that’s how you get your time back with your family and friends in the UK, and quite a lot of that time is spent travelling because when you’re on operational tours for example you’re saving all your money so –

A: Yes, that’s not to say the army takes, takes, takes because they also give back quite a lot – a good example as well is we talk about work time in a couple of weeks I’ll be going on a battlefield tour to Belgium, and that’s work for me, I’m taking my troops to give them a little bit of an insight of what happened in the airborne landings and you know you get to do a lot of that

H: You can see just in your eyes just how excited you are –

A: I can’t wait

H: At the prospect of doing that. Let’s just go back a second because we’ve had another question in from Thomas, he says “what career opportunities are there other than front line action, and I think that’s what a lot of people have in their minds when they talk about the army, they don’t necessarily – rejecting front line action but they want to know kind of how it all fits in with the other career opportunities that there are

A: Yes if you look at the army as an organisation, a very small percentage of people actually on the frontline. If you imagine a deployment to Afghanistan the amount of people that we need to support that one soldier on the frontline is vast, so for example – for every bloke on the frontline there’s about 3 or 4 people in bases, supporting and doing things like transport, doing things like medical supplies, doctors, nurses, there’s – so there’s a vast array of things that are not just on the frontline

D: The frontline as well is a very old-fashioned term, everyone sort of goes across on operations and works together, so for example you might be in the logistics but you’re moving forward with a combat logistic patrol, so you’re providing kit and equipment to people working sort of on the enemy territory. But you’re all in the thick of it really, so we’re soldiers first and then tradesmen and specialists second, so it’s very important to remember that you do join the army to be a soldier, but that’s not to say that we’re all sort of digging trenches, and sort of you know hand-to-hand combat or anything, so -

H: Very interesting point to make. Donna, Andrew thank you very much indeed for your time today. For more information you can visit www.armyjobs.mod.uk and I hope it’s been informative for you this afternoon and that you’ll take a look at the website