Originally Posted by Kitmarlowe

Well, to throw some water on this oil fire. My unit has just moved to a 2 week(?) phase 1 training package as the current 10 odd weekends was taking too long and people were dropping out too often, at least that's what we have been told. This does mean that a new bod who walked in last Tuesday could be a fully trained Soldier by September.

If (as I suspect you might be) you are with 4 Yorks this is a CO's policy decision. In theory you can still do the 10 weekends however noone in your CoC is going to let you do it. The logic being that the 2 week phase 1 courses let them know exactly when you are going to complete your phase 1 (no chance of missing a weekend etc) and so can book your CIC well in advance. By doing this noone should need to do refresher weekends and noone shoud have to restart phase 1 because 6 months have expired before they get on a CIC.

I still wonder what ITG think of that policy.

All well and good to get greasy students and the unemployed who can commit to two weeks at the RTC and then two weeks at CIC, ( as if they'd do it just for the money... ) but blokes with jobs or families will not find this attractive.


It also does assume that the two week courses continue to be run. If they don't, the CO will suddenly find he has no SUTs in the pipeline.


The words "short sighted" do spring to mind.

Originally Posted by Bravo_Bravo

I still wonder what ITG think of that policy.

All well and good to get greasy students and the unemployed who can commit to two weeks at the RTC and then two weeks at CIC, ( as if they'd do it just for the money... ) but blokes with jobs or families will not find this attractive.


It also does assume that the two week courses continue to be run. If they don't, the CO will suddenly find he has no SUTs in the pipeline.


The words "short sighted" do spring to mind.

I do suspect that this is driven by the need to find another 80 bodies and 50 bodies for 2 Op Herricks next year. The numbers of lads who now have 2 or 3 tours in the last 5 years is getting a little high.

Fair enough, but the blokes would need to have at least 12 months as a trained soldier ( maybe 18? ) before they can deploy. It still excludes the employed. They also need to complete the 10 DIE weekends plus set drill nights ( how unfortunate is that acronym? ) before they mobilise.

Originally Posted by Bravo_Bravo

Fair enough, but the blokes would need to have at least 12 months as a trained soldier ( maybe 18? ) before they can deploy. It still excludes the employed. They also need to complete the 10 DIE weekends plus set drill nights ( how unfortunate is that acronym? ) before they mobilise.

why 18 months. is this time to get some courses in before deployment. to be fair coming straight from catterick then doing 10 die weekends should be enough to tag on a regular units pre deployment training. the 12~18 months is so fcuking time consuming.

12-18 months has been dictated by Grown Ups based on the experiences of integrating TA soldiers with their Regular counterparts.

Its not a matter of TA "tagging along" while the Regulars do Mission Specific Training, those who are mobilised join them and work alongside the Regs.

Originally Posted by devilish

Originally Posted by fusilier50

its not so much the paperwork ,although that can take a while especially getting the RG8's back from the GP's. its the lack of selection weekends and places on them.

Getting former service documents back from Glasgow has always been time consuming although i have never understood why it should take months in this day and age.

My own unit has always attracted former servicemen but many give up and change their minds after waiting up to 6 months.

I have on a regular basis passed on my complaints but as i am pretty low on the food chain i doubt it will do any good

I'm pretty sure I read somewhere recently that ex regs are to be fast tracked ASAP.

We were told ex regulars have to go through the whole process including recruit selection if they are more than x years out the army (4?). This leads to grumbles from some potential ex regular soldiers, rightly or wrongly... I can see both the reason for the rules and the reason why it irks.

Retaining (or not) rank seems to be a bit hit and miss especially regards JPA.

Originally Posted by nochmal_bitte

Originally Posted by devilish

Originally Posted by fusilier50

its not so much the paperwork ,although that can take a while especially getting the RG8's back from the GP's. its the lack of selection weekends and places on them.

Getting former service documents back from Glasgow has always been time consuming although i have never understood why it should take months in this day and age.

My own unit has always attracted former servicemen but many give up and change their minds after waiting up to 6 months.

I have on a regular basis passed on my complaints but as i am pretty low on the food chain i doubt it will do any good

I'm pretty sure I read somewhere recently that ex regs are to be fast tracked ASAP.

We were told ex regulars have to go through the whole process including recruit selection if they are more than x years out the army (4?). This leads to grumbles from some potential ex regular soldiers, rightly or wrongly... I can see both the reason for the rules and the reason why it irks.

Retaining (or not) rank seems to be a bit hit and miss especially regards JPA.

Ex-Regs have to start from scratch if they have been out over 6 years. Out 3-6 they lose their rank (unless authority is granted by APC to keep it). Under 3 years straight back in, no phase 1, no trade training, keep rank.

Out of interest, how long do you have to rejoin the TA if you leave assuming you're into the realms of trade training?

2 week RTC, then 2 week CIC, to me that makes 30 MTD not including in house weekends and drill nights .... sorry training nights.
How many MTD are you guys getting? we've been deploying 4 blokes a year since 03 (not including surges for T1,2 and H4,5,6) and will be for the forceable future
were on 32 MTD, sh1t or bust and if you want to do more, C1 training it is!