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Commissioning?

so if your commisioning from the ranks do you still need a-levels as a minimum? or can you go straight in for it with reccomendation from your CO?......... and im not talking as an LE entry?
 
Notwithstanding the preceding posts that appear to be in contradiction of this, I know a guy who commissioned from the ranks after 6 years with no CoC recommendations or any academic qualifications whatsoever.

As they say in the commercial; just do it.

PM me if you want any advice on what I, whoops, I mean my friend did to achieve this.
 
Some good advice on here.

I am amazed at some of the Sandhurst comments though. Frankly, you get extra brownie points for looking after the weaker members of your platoon added to the fact that dropping your fellow cadets in the sh1t is just plain unwise (everything comes back around at some stage).

The DS at Sandhurst tend to be pretty sharp and they don't miss much. If they think you're jack, you'll get binned. Its their job to do the weeding and they do it pretty well from memory.

The course will also be much easier if you stick together.

If you go there as an ex-ranker, you will have an advantage in that you won't have problems dealing with the more basic stuff, eg: bulling everything ad nauseam, drill, skill at arms and all the rest of it. If you help your fellow cadets it will be noted (you might not think so at the time). Its not the Legion, ie: Devil take the hindmost.
 
I am unsure on the academic question - do rankers need a-levels. I think, but am not 100% sure, that I did put one through the system without. He had the nouse and could have done A-levels, but didn't. I also had a couple that had degrees and pretended not to want "the responsibility" when they joined.

Going outside your chain of command as Dragstrip infers may not be 100% wise - apart from hacking them off and potentially losing their (perhaps valuable) recommendation/backing, you may not be given time to attend the required selection procedures...

I have put maybe 5 or 6 into the commissioning system from the ranks and have only once had a soldier that then had second thoughts and therefore got an "at risk" recommendation from the CO. I am pretty sure that if you are to join from the ranks you SHOULD receive their recommendation as it is all on the forms you need to complete.
 
Whilst on the PODC some years back, there was one person who did not get the support of his CO but still made it through RCB - it is after all just the opinion of the CO and the selection process is left to the now AOSB.

Best to have the CO vote though, if you end up being boderline at AOSB their (CO) vote could tip the balance in the right direction.
 
Recommendations are probably there to act as a prior weeding process - who knows? Did the guy not get his recommmendation (as in not ask for it), or was he not recommended (as in "Soldier X shouldn't be an officer")?

Another aspect of this is when there was a spate of people saying "oh, soldier X is quite bright, I might put her forward for commissioning". Started to get a bit too much - almost every female soldier who wasn't yet an NCO, but could string a sentence together and was keen to succeed was being asked the question. Maybe someone received a memo about creating female role models? I am sure it happens with blokes too, but maybe they were paying more attention to females as they were in shorter supply.

In my experience it is a ball ache of a procedure, but certainly worth pursuing (from putting people into the procedure, not following it myself). Those who have done it would have the other side of the advice - how hard it really is to transition, do the work, get the ticks in boxes etc.
 
django_strikes said:
I am unsure on the academic question - do rankers need a-levels. I think, but am not 100% sure, that I did put one through the system without. He had the nouse and could have done A-levels, but didn't. I also had a couple that had degrees and pretended not to want "the responsibility" when they joined.

Going outside your chain of command as Dragstrip infers may not be 100% wise - apart from hacking them off and potentially losing their (perhaps valuable) recommendation/backing, you may not be given time to attend the required selection procedures...

I have put maybe 5 or 6 into the commissioning system from the ranks and have only once had a soldier that then had second thoughts and therefore got an "at risk" recommendation from the CO. I am pretty sure that if you are to join from the ranks you SHOULD receive their recommendation as it is all on the forms you need to complete.

Quite right, Django. Perhaps I was a little overenthusiastic about my assertion of just doing it regardless of approval/recommendation. Indeed, what actually happened to me was that I put myself forward by my own initiative in the first instance and then over time managed to secure the support of the chain of command.
 
its very interesting to hear from ex rankers, have any of you commissioned back into your old regiments? and the abbreviations LE and DE............not even sure if that was one but f somebody coud enlighten me, i understand its along the lines of different sort of lengths of commission
 
UlsterFry - PM me if you want some guidance - i've just helped 3 of ours through with some mentoring, pre-AOSB work and so they're through onto the POD Cse.
 
DE - Direct entry. Anyone who goes to Sandhurst for the 44 week course, be it from school, uni, the ranks, whatever.

LE - Late Entry - Commission from WO1, sometimes WO2. Progression all the way through ranks and offered commission at end of enlisted service. Or thereabouts.
 
( reg ulster fry)
you said u helped 3 lads get through to PODC, which i understand is a course to basically toff you up a little, make sure your on the right path to having an officer like attitude? i am proberbly wrong however does this have to takeplace for ex rankers? or only if AOSB say so? Im not really at a stage yet with getting all these things done, just before leave my OC said see him after the break and we can talk about commissions. The good thing for me is he commissioned as an e ranker too so he should be helpful, but from now how long do you think it could take for me to get to the stage your lads are at?.................or is it a case of how longs a piece of string?
 
You don't have to do the POD Course. There were four guys from the ranks in my platoon alone a Sandhurst. Two had done the course, two hadn't. It was down to RCB (back then) AOSB (now) to decide if they needed to attend. As for how long it takes....a piece of string is about right. I reccomended one of my lads go forward and try for it and he was in after 8 months, one of the other subbies had I know has put a couple forward. And after asking him one took just over 3 mnths (very fast and unusual) and the other took just over a year (more due to an Op tour than anything else). I hope that answers your question a little.Once you have thought it through fully and made your decision good luck with which ever route you decide to take.
Best bit of advice I can give is if you want a commission is, stick your haed down and make it work. Provided you have the basic qualities they are looking for the rest is pretty much up to you.
 
So did you decide to go for the commission? i am interested cus i most likely have to enlist after uni becus i cannt commission straight in... (commonwealth citizen cannt afford to live in the uk for 5 years before i elible well plus i would be a tad old).
 

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