Recruitment into the Air Force in 10 - 15 years' time

[Whenurhappy]

Dear all,

I am working on a project for my OU studies to think strategically about recruitment into the RAF in, say 2015. Putting the 'Iraq' factor to one side, which appears to be discouraging parents and teachers from sending 'Little Johnny' to the Careers office at the moment, what sort of inducements and career management strategies would you recommend to improve recruitment and retention in a future - an increasingly competative - environment producing fewer technically-minded youth who appear to have little enthusiasm for life in the Services (and the RAF in particular)?

Whenuapai:8

[airborne_artist]

I'd dramatically increase the sixth-form scholarship scheme, and introduce a mini-Welbeck element to it. Sixth-form scholars would attend Welbeck for summer/easter school, and perhaps three weekends a term during term time.

They'd be assigned tutors who they could contact via email/Skype at any time, who would oversee their progress in conjunction with their school/college, with the aim of getting A or B grades at A2 in three science A levels.

They would then go on to a science BSc with sensible financial support. I'd open the scheme up to all potential officers, not just engineers and medics as is the case at the moment.

[South Bound]

Agree with AA, also bring back the full-time Cadetships...

[shawtarce]

Assuming there will still be a Royal Air Force in 2015..........

[The Adjutant]

What makes you think there will be a RAF in 10 to 15 years time? Looking around me the move to "joint service" and the outflow of experienced people is such that I doubt if we could support the RAF as a seperate service for much longer. I fully expect the forces Army/Navy and RAF to be radically reorganised into either Army and RN, or even perhaps UK Armed Forces as a single servce much as the Canadians tried some time back. I think the RAF will not make it to it's 100th birthday, which will save it the problem of producing the booklet mentioned in another thread and all the other celebrations that would go along with it.

While I expect howls of disaproval from various Ppruners I think the evidence supports my view.

[newbiep]

Recruitment has to show the reality of the job/company you're applying to work for.
The problem with current RAF recruitment (not the other services), is that the reality doesn't match up to the advertising. What on earth a load of flying knives and forks has to do with being in the RAF - who knows. The RAF are shying away from showing what the RAF is really like, any trawl of you tube will show the advertising strategies of 5-10 years ago, deemed inappropriate at the time but actually more relevant than ever for today. "Rise above the rest" etc.

The truth is the best option, sure glamour helps too, but if the armed forces are to presented as a vocation then the recruitment strategy and advertising has to fire up the imagination of the waiverers and ultimately deliver. I doubt that much expenditure is required to recruit pilots for example, and it's not surprising that the rest PVR because this wasn't what they thought it was going to be. ;)

[FHA]

You could always use the Spitfire pilots from Armstrong & Miller, in future recruiting campaigns.

[Magnersdrinker]

Got to agree with The Adj on this one , I dont think there will be one in 10 years time , or maybe they will try and make it last till 2018 just to have a sing song and a party then become UK Force Plc

[charliegolf]

Adj

Didn't Canada go joint some years back, only to go back to tri-service? Or did I dream it when high on Wobbly?

Any parallel there to provide hope?

CG

[green granite]

It will probably be the 'European Air Force' of by then. :}

[BluntM8]

Recruitment!

Oi! Read the sticky at the to...

What?

Oh. Sorry.

:}

[airborne_artist]

Adj - regardless of the name/top level structure, the Armed Services will still need well-educated officers and NCOs. I'd also look hard at sponsoring future technicians from 16 y/o as well.

[OHP 15M]

AA,

What is YOUR definition of well eductaed and its relevance to the job in hand ?

[dallas]

whenurhappy,

As part of your study you must include reference to the existing state of the forces, as we are creaking in several places and badly overdrawn. That will impact on the military's capability to address the measures you mention and force them to cherry pick. Although that may seem like a negative point, I believe it is bitter sweet - the military are lacking in money, but still maintain a vibrant capability to commit to waste and folly.

The military still offers people the chance to do something different, as well as learn basic skills and experience discipline, and I think this is its unique market position. When I joined, the forces were still regarded as a life career and that perception has faded for servicemen as operational tempo increases, matched by a reciprocal decrease in quality of life.

There will always be people who want or need to stay in the military and they will naturally be promoted to senior posts, but the market will be narrower and the majority of those with talent will have left for pastures new. So in summary, the military will slowly become intellectually weaker, which may affect battlefield initiative.

As you have already said, the market is increasingly competitive outside and the military has a lot of underlying problems that require energy, money and initiative to solve - most of which won't be realised. The existing 'providers' do a good job of funnelling people into the forces, but I think the whole forces package needs to be sold to the youth as a 'gap 5 years' and not a lifelong career, before people will look at it as the takeaway organisation it has become.

[South Bound]

My definition would be a sound education or appropriate vocational training focussed upon the future career path of the individual. Of course, that requires some forethought, planning and investment in the future of potential recruits.

Whatever anyone will admit to, the Armed Forces has broadened (ahem, lowered standards maybe) the recruiting envelope because they cannot attract the people they used to - competition is just too fierce from the private sector. Our Universtity educated people are not attracted to the Services while our practically skilled school-leavers see the opportunities that exist in the hands-on trades through learning a skill and the earning potential of being a plumber/plasterer/electrician etc. Why would one join the Forces if one could work outside - that is the challenge we must overcome....

[Mr-Burns]

OHP 15,

I think his definition of educated is someone that can spell educated. 5/10 see me.

[Whenurhappy]

Guys/girls,

Thanks for the posts. Irrespective of the amount of direct industry support to operations, I understand that the RAF will continue to need technically-minded new entrants (offrs and ORs) - especially if the Service continue down the road towards a network-centric environment. To be able to articulate the role of Air Power clever graduate types will also be needed, but UK universities and colleges are producing fewer engineering and science graduates, who are being snapped up by an industry that is similarly short of high-calibre staff. I have spoken to recruiting and Manning staffs, but they are focussed on the 'close battle', and not looking out to the horizon that I am examining in my study.

It is clear that the key people are the so-called 'gate keepers' - parents, teachers, careers advisors - who will steer/support young people seeking careers. I have heard - and it would be appreciated if this could be verified - that Careers teams are not welcome in Welsh or Scottish schools. Again - how could we influence the 'gate keepers'?

Whenuapai

PS: Yes - I agree cadetships are the way-ahead!

[South Bound]

Gatekeepers - agreed, vitally important. Hesitate to say it, but I was pushed into a career with the RAF (after a suggestion on my part, I admit), but before I knew it I was at Biggin Hill at 15, Sixth Form Scholarship, Biggin Hill at 17, Uni Cadetship and Cranditz at 21, all without really knowing how I got there!

So committed to a career at 15, SB's Mum & Dad laughing because I was paying my own way through Uni and all that with the support of the school/college. How do we get the parents and teachers back on side? All about public image I am afraid and intrinsically linked with all the 'Covenant' stuff that is going on at the moment.

Little Johnnie's parents/teachers need to see that the Forces can offer him a trade/career that will provide:

1. A good standard of living compared to his peers (the 'package' needs to be attractive and publicised, pay, SFA, AT, med care etc).
2. Opportunities at the end of an engagement (this needs a close analysis and case studies of ex-Service personnel and how well they are doing).
3. Credible support and leadership from Government and top brass (all the in-fighting at the moment IS going to come to a head - lines in the sand are being drawn and unless improvements are forthcoming, the military may never recover from the subsequent fallout).
4. Status in society (it should be a priviledge to serve, and the benefits and recognition should match the commitment).

They need to be proud of the work the Forces do before they will recommend it to anyone, and that means that the message coming out of Government needs to be positive. Our people should be lauded and afforded first class treatment wherever they go, not treated as any other citizen. Maybe we should follow the society model from Starship Troopers (the book, not the dire movie ((althought the bugs were cool))) and only afford full 'citizenship' on those that have provided a public service...

Serving with HM Forces should be something to be aspired to, not a fallback if nothing better crops up.

[Occasional Aviator]

Have you looked at WHO we are going to need to recruit? I remember talking to someone from PMA who had been heavily involved in the last round of redundancies, and his basic premise was that in the future we would need more officers/NCA and far fewer airmen like technicians. Now, I know some of the army types will scoff at this, but I think he was right. Unlike a service oriented around bayonetting people inorder to put a flag in the top of a hill, the people that generate the RAF's combat power are aircrew, IntOs, battlespace mannagers like fighter controllers, ATC and Flt Ops and so on. The other jobs reduce in importance as things are automated (whatever you think of JPA, it does reduce the need for uniformed clerks) and, strangely, as our equipment becomes more advanced. Think how newer aircraft are increasingly self-diagnosing 'black-box' technology with 1st to 4th line rectification policies and long-term integrated logistic support contracts. We're also going to have to get used to the idea that it's not only fast-jet pilots who will be warfighting commanders - we won't have enough of them (look at how many FE@R we'll have in 10-15 years' time, and combine it with a contracted flying training organisation and UAVs and naval JCA being part of the FE@R - not to mention the move from a largely 2-seat FJ force to an exclusively single seat) and they'll be so valuable in the cockpit that we won't be able to broaden them enough - as well as the pressure to get them in younger so that their 'productive' life in the cockpit is longer - we may need to think about moving to the Dutch model where the young guys fly FJ/AH and you only go multis after a couple of front-line tours - which makes a transition to KLM a positive recruitment/retention point for them, not a source of outflow.
Just a few ideas!
OA

[dallas]

OA,

I readily acknowledge the need for the military to be a hierarchal organisation, but I can assure you from my lowly position in the food chain, one thing that is stifling us is the number of existing bosses, which makes leadership hard to nurture and decision making slow. Add to that the practical obstacle of recycling our managers every 2 years when they're posted, plus a prevalent culture that believes change=progress=personal advancement, when that equation is far from sound, and I think we need to streamline management and empower people closer to the shop floor.

With regard to the shop floor, I regularly encounter situations that lead me to believe the generation of aircraft has become a byproduct, in the same way that M&S also make prawn sandwiches. Oddly enough, I'm selling my stock in the RAF and looking to invest my skills elsewhere.

[OCCWMF]

Little Johnny/Jenny wants:

To be respected (not in a back slapping top job old boy way, but in a 'you're a fighter pilot/sooty/rigger/soldier/sailor, that makes me horny' way)

To blow stuff up.:}

Money.

Yup, think that's it. So - you PR the job, people join. Think Top Gun, Navy SEALS etc. Keep it dangerous (makes it sexy) and keep it realistic. Flash the toys, weapons, locations (except barracks) and show the ladies/lads falling at their feet.

Sit back and front load OASC because you're going to need all the help you can get. What to do when they find out it's not quite like that? Your problem. Although I suspect they would rapidly set about making sure it was like that.:E

[Epimetheus]

Dallas,

the practical obstacle of recycling our managers every 2 years when they're posted, plus a prevalent culture that believes change=progress=personal advancement, when that equation is far from sound, and I think we need to streamline management and empower people closer to the shop floor

Hear hear.