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Soldiers' Career Structures and Terms of Service

GENERAL

  • The underlying purpose of a career structure is to sustain the Army’s operational effectiveness.

  • A career structure provides the framework to populate the Army with officers and soldiers of the correct rank, age and experience. It will also balance the needs of the Service with individual expectations and in so doing will seek to retain the quality and quantity of personnel required to man the Army by controlling the flow into, through and out of the Army.

  • Terms of service are the rules and regulations that underpin the career structure. The ‘life blood’ of the career structure is promotion, which provides the means to man appointments and is used as the primary, but not only, reward mechanism. With promotion comes an increase in responsibility, status and financial remuneration.

  • Manning (Army) is responsible to the Adjutant General (AG) for the structure and manning of the Army. Thus Manning(Army) is responsible for producing a correctly manned Army, with the right number of soldiers, in the correct specialisation, and of the right rank and length of service.

  • The Army’s manpower requirement is set by the Standing Committee for Army Manpower Forecasting (SCAMF). Members of SCAMF include policy makers, financiers, recruiters, trainers of manpower and Commands. It considers all relevant factors that affect Army strength (such as inflow and outflow) and develops statistical models to predict manpower requirements.

SOLDIERS’ CAREER STRUCTURE

  • All new recruits sign on for a full 22 year career under the Open Engagement. From 1 Jan 08, new recruits will be enlisted on the Versatile Engagement (VEng)  

  • They must normally serve for a minimum of 4 years or 4 years and 3 months reckonable service dependent on age at enlistment) including basic military training and subsequent specialist training.

  • Employment will initially be with their own cap badge but, as experience, qualifications and promotion are accumulated, increased opportunities arise that allow for posting away (i.e. to training posts or other specialist jobs); this is normally followed by a return to the unit. It is possible for soldiers to either remain with their unit for the whole of their military career, or be trickle posted from one unit to another, dependent on the cap badge.

  • Once Soldiers have completed the full term of their career, the opportunity to extend their service beyond 22 years is open to selected individuals who still have valuable experience and skills. There are two main forms of continued service available.

    • The Long Service List (LSL) offers employment, normally for periods of 5 years at a time, up to age 55 years, in selected non mobilisation posts that would benefit from the additional experience these individuals bring to the appointment.

    • Limited Continuance offers either short term continuance for WO1s, in order to complete 22 years reckonable service for pension purposes, or longer term continuance for an average of 2 years. This latter option is used to either preserve specific skills until the completion of a project or task, or to maintain manning levels in areas of current or impending deficits.

  • Click here for a chart showing Soldier Engagements
  • The Versatile Engagement (VENG) - June 2006

PROMOTION

  • Target speeds and percentage chances for promotion must be sufficient to offer each satisfactory soldier the best possible career prospects consistent with his/her ability and to ensure that the Army’s need for Warrant Officers and Senior Non-Commissioned Officers is met. Rules are derived from the following principles:

    • Progress by the able - removal of the inefficient.

    • Rank to match age and experience.

    • Means of selection for promotion are both fair and efficient.

    • Each soldier managed individually by his Manning and Career Management Division (MCM Div) in the Army Personnel Centre (APC), and held within a Career Employment Group (CEG) (sometimes referred to as a ‘trade’ group).

  • In broad terms soldiers to be promoted must be qualified (education, training courses, and experience), recommended (by regular confidential reports completed by his employing officer and superiors) and selected (by promotion boards held at his MCM Div).Promotion on an Army-wide average is about once every 3 years but there are variations dependent upon cap badge and specialisation/CEG.
     
  • Regular formal career reviews are held to judge the soldier’ s continued suitability for a full career of 22 years. If it is assessed that a soldier no longer remains suitable then they can be discharged, after 12 months notice, at the 6, 9 and 12 year Manning Control Points (MCPs).
     
  • Click here for the ideal average soldier career progression at whole Army level, together with an indication of the ideal chances of promotion. It would be noted that, as a whole Army average, no one cap badge or CEG will equate to these rates. 

RETENTION

The Army uses retention bonuses as a tactical measure to support the existing Terms of Service in order to retain trained personnel in specific CEGs.