Recruiting from URNU

Has anyone had any luck recruiting from the URNU?

What problems have you experienced and how did you overcome it?

M(R)

 

I'm afraid my view is rather from the other side. When I was in the URNU, we had good relations with all the local units (President and Wildfire). As final year URNU students, we all went for one drill night to President, where they gave us a presentation on all the different branches, what the training and attendance requirements were, and what your call-up obligations were. The presentations were all very good, and quite clear. One or two of my year did end up going to President, but the real problem is that most naval-oriented people out of the URNU end up joining the RN proper rather than think of the RNR. In this respect, there seems to be very little middle ground - either students love it and join up, or they had a very good time but it's not quite what they're after in the long term thank you.

The other issue I can think of with recruiting from URNUs is that with the possible exception of London and Glasgow, a very small proportion of the students who go to the URNU will actually live and remain in the same area, so making recruitment by the local RNR unit quite difficult.

 

LURNU/MURNU have their P2000's at Eaglet.

APN

 

From what I've seen its either a close relationship or a nonexistent one. There are some who want to come across but get confused by the vagarise of the RNR system - the whole "you're a mid till you take AIB but you have to take that soon and the paperwork often gets lost and what if you fail" which puts people off.

Often those that do come in end up heading for the RN quickly, meaning a lot of time and effort to get them sorted has been for naught.

 

I know of units in which a few URNU types come in during the summer months. They seem to be well regarded.

 

Is that while on summer leave? Its an interesting idea, but a lot depends on the attitude of their CO. I've seen some RN CO's being pretty anti RNR, to the extent of bollocking them in public for having the temerity to recruit at a freshers fair by the URNU.

 

Last year a team from PRESIDENT was very pro-active in speaking to the URNUs in the South (they even turned up to the Annual inter-URNU sports weekend) and trying to organise meet-and-greets, recruitment days etc for the students. This seemed to me to be an excellent idea and in fact, one such recruitment evening was held at PRESIDENT last week, and a lot of URNU types were there (mainly incognito)...

However, the general opinion was that it was a lacklustre presentation, utterly confusing in terms of branches/roles etc and as hardly any real RNR people were there to speak to afterwards, everyone was left with lots of unanswered questions and a very poor impression. This seems to be a real shame and a massive missed opportunity (and a squandering of some excellent interest).

I'm not sure I agree with Scud when he says "most naval-oriented people out of the URNU end up joining the RN proper rather than think of the RNR". A lot of the ones I know would be very keen (and don't worry, they're under no illusions about being in the RNR already!) but it's never followed up because apart from the example of PRESIDENT's team in 2005 (who were ex-London URNU anyway) there is little or no co-ordination.

IMHO, if an RTC (or even the entire RNR) was keen to tap into this pool of 700 keen, navally-orientated civilian manpower (only 10% join the RN on average), then there needs to be a huge annual push, via the central URNU office in Portsmouth, about halfway through university Summer Term (ie very soon). If every URNU leaver was given a leaflet, and the address of the nearest RTC to their home address, and the date of a suitable "Meet and Greet" evening soon afterwards, there would, I guarantee, be a massive response. And as the leaflets could be sent to the URNUs in internal mail, the cost would be bugger all!

 

Well I have to say my comments are only based on personal experience, rather than general inquiry into the business, but of my year who left the URNU, it went in breakdown (out of 10 of us leaving):

5 x joining the RN
1 x joining the RNR
2 x straight civilian jobs (not interested in RNR)
1 x failed medical, civvy street
1 x RFA

Certainly in my entry at my URNU, most people were interested in joining the Navy and being a Warfare Officer (4 of the 5 joined the RN as Warfare, and one was already an ME bursar). The navy side of the URNU is very much biased towards Warfare - navigation, shiphandling, warfare being the main fare of the URNU syllabus, and does very well to prepare people for Warfare and BRNC. I suspect the RN emphasis is very much down to the fact that the CO is a Warfare officer (and frequently an FNO) so quite biased towards that side of proceedings.

I think raising the awareness is the key - if more people are aware of what they could do, they might be interested. The other avenue of raising interest is the RNR Training Officers attached to each unit - they can act as links to the local RNR unit, and as conduits for advice and discussion about the RNR informally with the students.

 

Slightly off topic (sorry) but does anyone know of any central fund (DNR?) that units can apply to for recruiting drives?

 

Supposedly, now COMMRRES has stood up & we (stand fast the RNRMB) come under fleet there is access to the RN rescruiting budget.

As to whether this is true, well, that's another matter.

APN

 

IIRC ex-URNU do an AIB but no NE?

What do we think of the quality of the ex-URNU recruits? I only know a few, all of whom are excellent officers.

I have heard tales to the contrary though. Thoughts?

M(R)

 

Correct in all, but you also need an initial recommendation from your URNU CO before you can start the process.

 

In my day, URNU OC's had the potential to be fast tracked post ACE straight into IST term, thus missing 6 weeks of NMT and Nav Training. However, they had to produce the goods for ACE, and generally be an all round good egg.

I have to say this happened in 99, not sure of the current situation.

 

Recruiting from URNU seems like a sensible idea, but what about from cadet units? We might even get some people who can march in a smart military manner.

 

Alfred - they got rid of fast-tracking in 03 - felt it wasn't producing the calibre of officers they wanted. All ex-URNU chaps who go to BRNC now have to go through the whole shebang. By the end, most ex-URNU people didn't want to go fast-track as they felt they were pushed and it was putting them at a bit of a disadvantage.

 

As an ex-URNU, ex-RN now RNR I can see the benefits of recruiting from the URNU into both RN and RNR.

As the URNU is meant to "educate and inform the future business leaders and oppion formers as to the role and benefit of the RN" I can't think of a better way of continuing this than getting them to join the RNR. My unit ahs had some success at recruiting from our co-located URNU normally gaining one or two S/Lt's a year from them. However, we lost one last year as the change from turning up and having a few beers to actually doing training and going away at weekends on serious training was too much of a culture shock!

All in all lets justify their existence by recognising that they are a recruiting organisation, give the hulls to the RNR to use as and when whilst still allowing the URNU to use them for the 8 weekends a year that they go on plus Easter and Summer Trips. This would also give the MW Officers a nice toy to drive around and increase their sea time without having to task off expensive MCMVs.

 

Although LURNU/M&SURNU do have Charger and Biter at RNHQ Merseyside (sorry to get political) but unforunately, doesn't mean that LURNU/M&SURNU stay around, however, they are still a useful recruiting pot and I understand that Eaglet have recently attended a drill night at both units. Unfortunately, from my m8s in both units, I understand that the pitch of the presentation was all wrong in that the person delivering it used a lecture prepared for initial recruits into the RNR and was more like a lecture on sorting your life out (e.g. talking about the code of social conduct which the students have had a lecture on every year they've been in the URNU)rather than talking about the opportunities and experiences which can be gained in the RNR. I understand that it doesn't help that the local staff officer can be quite unhelpful towards the urnus as well and there is a certain amount of resentment from LURNU that they fund a hugh sum of money into the wardroom over the bar but get very little in return- there are those on both sides who want to resolve it though. I think all could work more closely together much like LURNU and M&SURNU do the RMR, providing civie population on their exercises and providing the use of P2000 as a mother craft for a landing exercise.

 

good idea, cadet units are a good source for recruitment and have in general excellent marching standards- maybe they could even teach the odd one or 2 in the RNR a few things about marching