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Is the wealth of on line information a help or hindrance for new joiners?

colinmc400

Midshipman
I have mainly been a stalker on here and enjoyed some of the "banter" from the 3 badge brigade, but seriously, there has never been so much information available for people wishing to join the RN. But is it a help or a hindrance to new recruits?

I cannot believe some of the questions being asked on here and just wonder if the current "gen xyz" or whatever they are called, are too used to being spoon fed everything they want? R+IT (resource and initiative training) was a huge part of my RN training (as a Fisgard/Caledonia Tiff - spits, just to get it out of the way for you haters out there) and i cannot imagine it being so straight forward for the current generation, used to Googling everything to death and expecting there to be answer before they tackle anything. "I am joining up next year, when is summer leave"???

Also given we can be led to believe from some qtrs, that the MOD has issues recruiting and retaining people, there seems to be a certain desperation from some people to get into the RN, "i had a boil on my bum when i was a kid, will i fail my medical" blah blah. I am in my mid 50's now and have lived overseas for the last 15 years, so is the RN still viewed as a potentially great career, or just a job, when there might be less of those going aorund?

I joined in 1982 and remember the process as:-
1. Expressed interest at Careers office.
2. Went back for entrance exams for Art App.
3. Passed tests and went back for medical.
4. Received confirmation in the post of passing and an offer to join.
5. Returned offer and received joining pack and rail warrant.
6. Packed what they told me i needed and got on to train to Plymouth.
7. Never looked back.

This took max 6 months and only because i wanted to stay at school and pass my O levels. I passed the Art App entrance tests 3 months before i took my O levels, so could have left school and joined one entry before i actually did.

Seems like there are a bunch more hoops to jump and a lot more people wanting to dissect every stage on the Forums, as opposed to asking the people who can give them the official MOD answer. Seemed so straightforward in 1982, but not so much now.
 
I joined in 1973, went to the recruiting office (as it was known then), got asked if I'd walked there, said yes, how old are you, 16, in that case you join Ganges in 6 months time :)

But I agree, there's far too much information, most of it pointless and I have to reign myself in with some of the questions but it doesn't stop there as there's a post made recently about someone who is sitting his PPE for killick and wants to know what questions he'll be asked!!

Don't worry about the iron, what bag did you take with you ;)
 
I joined in 85 and as mentioned above, it was a trip to the careers office, test, medical and wait for a date.

I had however been to Raleigh twice with the Cadets, and one trip was about 5 weeks before I joined up.
 
What iron did you take with you?

Only the bit in my stomach, where a little intestinal fortitude is required. Like many i am sure, at 16 years and 6 months old, it was a little daunting, but i only had a couple of years of being a boy scout to fall back on and i managed. I fear for the ones coming through, that once they are 1mm out of their comfort zone, being asked to do something they had not researched, they will turn turtle. But as the Falklands would have shown, shite does happen and you have signed up to possibly go to war and be shot at.

"When we will the shooting stop so i can go on leave?"
 
I don’t know that there’s such a thing as too much information, as long as it’s sound and not here-say or just plain bollocks. And with the world quite literally at your fingertips easy and regular access to that information is the norm.

But I do think that can lead to those who’ve only known it this way becoming ‘anxious’ when they’re faced with the unknown.

It’s easy to blame the youth and to mock them for being like that, but whose fault is it? We (the older generation) have raised them that way; we’ve enacted all the H&S legislation that makes everything look scary, we’re the ones who haven’t let them out of our sight yet reminisce about the days when ‘the street lamps were our sign to go home’, we’re the ones who remember the days when young people had respect but we are the first to demand an apology if anyone dares to say our little darlings have done wrong.

Now of course you’re all reading this and saying ‘Not me’, and given the demographic of this site it’s probably true that some of us are a little less indulgent and likely to have not mollycoddled our children as much as some, but the fact is we as a society are responsible for that society and it’s unhelpful to criticise something we helped create if you’re not willing to do anything about it.

I’m an Admin on a Facebook group for the parents of Phase 1 recruits, and I often have to bite my tongue. (Emotional support to ‘grieving’ mothers isn’t my strong point). There are countless examples of why young people are so seemingly helpless on there. Driving from one end of the country to move their darling from Sultan to Culdrose - because Heaven forbid they get a train while carrying a few bags. I mean, they might have to change trains and how will they know what platform to use?

Or ‘How do they claim for travel’? Usually asked because their baby has a question and all their life it’s been Mummy (or Google ) that’s answered and it doesn’t occur to them to find some other way of sourcing an answer.

And the truth is, if we as a society, learn to let go then these young men & women can learn to be every bit as resilient and independent as we ever have been.

And so I do think the RN is still a worthwhile career, because it helps to build that resilience, that fortitude, and that independence that an adult needs. Again those of you who joined in the ‘70’s or 80’s will say ‘it was tougher in my day, you’ve got it easy’, or ‘it’s not as good as it was in my day’, or suchlike. I joined in 1991, my old man left in 1994, and he said exactly that sort of thing. He was a Ganges boy who went outside at 40 because he wasn’t enjoying it anymore and it wasn’t as much fun. Conversely I was having the time of my life in that same Navy. Now I can and do say the same about today’s Navy, (though I ain’t leaving any time soon), but change is inevitable. Society changes and the RN has to change too or we don’t recruit or retain our people (and God knows that’s proving to be a struggle).
 
I reckon the more information the better.
Sorting out the wheat from the chaff takes some sorting out though.
I joined in 63 and as for an iron waited unti I got to Raleigh.
Bought a cheapo one from Woolies which did the job but frequently overheated and tatood my nicks with an iron shaped brown mark, this of course was indistiguishable from skid marks!
 
I reckon the more information the better.
Sorting out the wheat from the chaff takes some sorting out though.
I joined in 63 and as for an iron waited unti I got to Raleigh.
Bought a cheapo one from Woolies which did the job but frequently overheated and tatood my nicks with an iron shaped brown mark, this of course was indistiguishable from skid marks!
Day 1 of the camouflage lessons?
 
Not sure why we have to go through all of this bollocks once again.
Today's kids are different. That's just a fact. Get over it. They are no more or no less entitled to anything than any of us.
You need to understand them in order to comment.
Today's kids are expected to do much more independent learning than most of you. They are tasked with finding shit out on a daily basis and are taught, that's taught, to use the Internet as the source of their research. What do you expect them to do when they want to find out about the Navy and Raleigh? They are going to go on the internet and either find out or ask questions. Just because 'back in the day' there was no one or nothing to ask doesn't mean that none of us had questions to ask.
 
But I do think that can lead to those who’ve only known it this way becoming ‘anxious’ when they’re faced with the unknown.

It’s easy to blame the youth and to mock them for being like that, but whose fault is it? We (the older generation) have raised them that way; we’ve enacted all the H&S legislation that makes everything look scary, we’re the ones who haven’t let them out of our sight yet reminisce about the days when ‘the street lamps were our sign to go home’, we’re the ones who remember the days when young people had respect but we are the first to demand an apology if anyone dares to say our little darlings have done wrong.

I’m an Admin on a Facebook group for the parents of Phase 1 recruits, and I often have to bite my tongue. (Emotional support to ‘grieving’ mothers isn’t my strong point). There are countless examples of why young people are so seemingly helpless on there. Driving from one end of the country to move their darling from Sultan to Culdrose - because Heaven forbid they get a train while carrying a few bags. I mean, they might have to change trains and how will they know what platform to use?

Or ‘How do they claim for travel’? Usually asked because their baby has a question and all their life it’s been Mummy (or Google ) that’s answered and it doesn’t occur to them to find some other way of sourcing an answer.

And the truth is, if we as a society, learn to let go then these young men & women can learn to be every bit as resilient and independent as we ever have been.

I think there is a lot of truth in what you say there and it sure seems that the current generation are taking a lot longer to "let go of the apron strings" than before. But i am not sure "cruel to be kind" would wash in this day and age, in terms of building some resilience before launch day. Its funny how you can look back to your school days and pick what should have been entirely unrelated activity's, that actually were very relevant once Mummy packed me off to "be a man". Scouts (perfect for those R+IT trips), school team sports (perfect for those assault courses, timed runs and general team building), following your local football team to away games (perfect for getting trains from one establishment to another) etc etc. Not sure sat in front of some device screen and getting lifts everywhere is making them ready for day 1 at Raleigh.

On a different note, i was pretty sure i knew what i wanted to do at 15 years old and focused my attention on achieving it. I wanted to be a Weapons Tiff (Ordnance), but ended up a clanky, as my maths wasn't good enough. I could have spat the dummy and bailed, BUT the guys who made the decisions had seen it all before and i know of several other guys in my class who did get selected for WEA(O), who were far more clever than i, that failed the exams and were shown the door. Yet i passed out as an MEA (M) and went on to me not bad at it. I see peeps come on here with such a variation on what they think they wanna do, that surely they cannot really have a real desire for any of it?? The one person now even asking Army or Navy, jeez that's a pretty basic decision isn't it? Do you suit a green uniform or a blue one??
 
I think there is a lot of truth in what you say there and it sure seems that the current generation are taking a lot longer to "let go of the apron strings" than before. But i am not sure "cruel to be kind" would wash in this day and age, in terms of building some resilience before launch day. Its funny how you can look back to your school days and pick what should have been entirely unrelated activity's, that actually were very relevant once Mummy packed me off to "be a man". Scouts (perfect for those R+IT trips), school team sports (perfect for those assault courses, timed runs and general team building), following your local football team to away games (perfect for getting trains from one establishment to another) etc etc. Not sure sat in front of some device screen and getting lifts everywhere is making them ready for day 1 at Raleigh.

On a different note, i was pretty sure i knew what i wanted to do at 15 years old and focused my attention on achieving it. I wanted to be a Weapons Tiff (Ordnance), but ended up a clanky, as my maths wasn't good enough. I could have spat the dummy and bailed, BUT the guys who made the decisions had seen it all before and i know of several other guys in my class who did get selected for WEA(O), who were far more clever than i, that failed the exams and were shown the door. Yet i passed out as an MEA (M) and went on to me not bad at it. I see peeps come on here with such a variation on what they think they wanna do, that surely they cannot really have a real desire for any of it?? The one person now even asking Army or Navy, jeez that's a pretty basic decision isn't it? Do you suit a green uniform or a blue one??
Yet more drivel , just to add to the reams of bollocks already spouted on the topic of 'The youth of today and their myriad of failings'
 

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