ISTR some figures being published in the mid to late 2000s for the average cost of training Soldiers and Officers during a full career.
Much Rum has been consumed since then, but I'm fairly sure it was approx. £9000 for a Soldier and upwards of £30000 for an Officer. I also seem to remember the average time spent in training being published, but I haven't a clue of the figures. Again significantly higher for Officers due to their long courses.
Capita’s initial contract award was £495M for 10 years. The website cost £113M and probably has a life of ten years. So that’s roughly £50M a year.
There are something like 500 officers and soldiers permanently employed in recruiting; let’s say the average capitation rate is £40k, so that’s another £20M.
Those adverts don’t come cheap. Just guess £10M a year for PR, ads etc. Then there’s infrastructure costs, tendering costs and other sundries. All up the fully burdened costs of the recruiting set up must be £80+M a year.
It costs more than £10k to get a soldier through the gates of Phase 1.......