Sandwich year with the RAF

[joe2812]

Hope you all will excuse another 'wannabe' thread on here...

Just wondering if the RAF still takes graduates on in their third year of Uni to do a year in placement? I've been told that it happened but that info is now ~ 10 years out of date and I can't remember hearing anything recent.

I wouldn't be interested in a year in the civilian sector as I have no plans to go that path after Uni, however if the RAF offered a placement scheme then i'd want to look into it.

Any PM's or replies on this would be mucho appreciated.

Thanks.

[speeddial]

Sandwich year? Try the kipper or AT fleet?

[Onan the Clumsy]

I thought the sandwich program was the bread and butter of the recruitment department.

After all they have a llot of positions that need filling.

I wonder what sort of roll you could end up in.

You could send them an email but don't forget to cold cut and meat paste your resume.

A sandwich course sounds like a souper idea.

Last year, weren't there some applicant from Turkey and Swiss applicants too?

You poor boy.

Make sure you look nice and crisp at the interview. You wouldn't want them to think you're a sloppy Joe.

and be yourself too. Don't worry about getting egg salad on your face.

Tell them you really like the RAF rucksack too because I hear bag ette-iquate is very important.





...oh that's right, I'm not in JetBlast any more. Sorry :}

[Bob Viking]

Very good Onan. Made me smile, but as I've just said on another thread I'm in a particularly good mood and I'd probably laugh at anything. And no I'm not p1ssed!
BV:}

[ACW418]

One of the guys on my VGS did a gap year as an Army Officer two years ago so the RAF might also be doing it.

ACW

[Maple 01]

Why the big happy Bob? Just been told you're going Typhoon?

[BEagle]

Don't some grunts do AAC gap-tours in between bouts of 'pwoper soldiewing'?

[PPRuNeUser0211]

ACW, the army offer "Gap year commissions" which is approx 6 weeks at Sandhurst followed by the rest of a year doing something constructive with a unit somewhere...

Don't think the RAF offers the same thing outright, but IIRC there was an engineering type (?) at a not so covert yorkshire airbase doing a year in industry type thing. Not entirely certain about that, but certainly as an engineer it might be possible.

[Jacks Down]

Can I please put this thread out of its misery by saying categorically that the RAF does not offer 'gap year' tours!

[Ad astra per aspera]

I recall meeting a charming young lady in the bar at Leuchars last August. Her university encouraged gingerbeering students to undertake a year in industry.

Whilst her contemporaries were sitting in a box factory somewhere, she was paid & kitted as an APO for the year whilst she shadowed a JEngO.

In the 15mins I was speaking to her I gathered that under this scheme she was inducted (per se) at Cranwell for all of two weeks in basic officer etiquette and the relevant security blurb you’d associate with the armed forces. When posted to Leuchars she was also encouraged to become involved with AT & events in the mess – planning the summer ball etc. Naturally she reported at regular intervals to both an RAF and university authority.

This young lady had no ties to the UAS or any inclination towards joining the RAF when she applied, but after the placement I gather she was beating a track towards OASC.

I don’t know / can’t recall / was looking at her chest - when she told me where she went to uni & how she got involved in the scheme.

Aspera

[joe2812]

Thank you for the info all, and the pi55-take Onan :rolleyes: (probably walked into that slightly).

Jacks Down - Was your statement referring to a gap year similar to what pba_target suggested? i.e. between college and university? Or did it also include a placement similar to the one mentioned?

Ad astra per aspera - That's the sort of thing I was getting at. I was only enquiring with regards to engineering within the service. The university doesn't help us arrange the placements, it's up to us, so I figured it wouldn't help to ask.

Thanks again for the input.

[PhilM]

The RAF do these placements for potential engineering officers. We had the Englineering Liason team do a presentation at our uni not so long ago, if I recall it was a year shadowing a JEngO and getting paid about £12k for it.

Guessing its still current as it wasn't that long ago we were told about it :ok:

[Well Travelled Nav]

What you are looking for is called the Undergrauate Engineering Placement Scheme (UEPS).

You are sponsored on £12000 for 1 year shadowing an engineering officer. However, you must pass the full RAF selection tests at OASC as unless you are a complete waste of space then you tend to be offered a place on Initial Officer Training at the end of your degree without having to repeat the selection process at OASC.

Hope that helps. Call into your local AFCO for more info.


WTN

[FFP]

Don't do it !!!

If your hands and brain have little or no connection to each other, and the only way to make a living is to be an engineer, do yourself a favour and join a commercial organisation through which you can do some decent engineering work (and earn decent money) and not spend your life either in a crap part of the world being shot at or doing reports for people and spending your life behind a desk.

Must admit to not being an engineer (did you guess ?!?!). So only repeated what every engineering officer has ever told me.

Phew ! What a long sentence !

(Awaiting response from Spanner fraternity . . . .:E )

[TBSG]

Don't do it !!!.... and not spend your life either in a crap part of the world being shot at ...

Sorry?? How many RAF engineers would claim to have been shot at recently? Not quite the same as a Chinook pilot over Iraq or a Harrier pilot over Afghanistan. Or indeed Private Bloggs in the 1st Foot and Mouth. What you mean is fixing aircraft for other people to get shot at... in. Last time I was in the desert, the closest the engineers got to brown underpants was a badly aimed rocket causing a mild bang several kilometres away.

Anyway, the Army version used to be called a Short Service Voluntary Commission, for which read a few weeks at Sandbags followed by a year (+) of fun with a regiment of your choice. A good way to fill a year between school and university. This is a "gap year commission" but is not a year in the middle of your university studies. The Army also declines to offer a year off mid-degree, although you are at liberty to attempt a TA commission, either while at OTC or in a "real" TA unit.

I do not believe that any of the services will offer a year off half way through, they would rather you graduate and then go for officer selection properly.

[ACW418]

TBSG

Balderdash. The Army do offer mid university placements. As I stated in a previous post one of my young instructors did his third year with the Army. Firstly on a short course at Sandhurst then the rest of the year in Germany with REME as a 2nd Lt. He then returned to his uni for his final year and having qualified is now at Sandhurst again and about to be commissioned. (I hope I haven't queried his chances by predicting his commissioning a la Murray Walker).

I keep in touch with him regularly and what I say is fact.

ACW

[TBSG]

I'll take your word for it - in my day (harumph) it didn't happen. Good luck to your mate anyway.