Could you do more work experience to help you gain experience?
Having not sent speculative CV's before, I'm not sure if it is a successful approach, however it shows keen-ness, they will tell you if they have it on file (which they probably will have), companies get hundreds and hundreds of CVs for any job opening and the sorting process is very crude to begin with.
My friend joined the Raf, done his training plus a couple of extra years and then left to go contracting. He done 4-5 years before leaving, I think the 12 year thing is for pensions. He had to give a years notice.