alfred_the_great said:
N_S - are the rumours true about this years batch...
Not sure.
It's doubtfull they can
all be that way inclined... :wink:
Seriously though, we were struggling to get sufficient high calibre guys earlier this year, but it seems to be that we're doing better than envisaged - if that's the rumour to which you refer. Standards remain as inflexible as ever.
My own thoughts were that there are already plenty of exceptionally high calibre Other Ranks, eligible for Corps Commission if they did not manage to get enough Direct Entry Officers.
Interestingly, had a chat with a recent Captain AIB just last week & he reckons we've been having problems with getting Officer candidates of a high enough calibre across the board. I wonder whether our standards and expectations are possibly failing to keep pace with society in general. It's always the case that our successors can never be as good as "we" were, but maybe we need to reflect the change in society with regard selection.
People come with different skill-sets - they're no lesser in general terms but may appear so if we teach them in school different to how we examine them for suitability in the jobs market. In other words, since our jobs and trade training has changed so radically in the last 20-30 years, maybe our selection process needs further updating too.
(Just to add, to lengthen the odds of my legs & face getting broken, the second sentence was a joke.)