Express trainees steam through Collingwood Developing Leadership Course

The first group of trainees recruited under the Royal Navy Undergraduate Apprenticeship Scheme were put through their paces at HMS Collingwood recently.

The recruits tackled the Low Ropes course at the Royal Naval Leadership Academy as part of their accelerated training programme which should see them serving as Petty Officers within four and a half years.

They began the Scheme’s inaugural course in September 2016 and, upon completion, can look forward to an eight and a half year tailored career with the Royal Navy.

The Scheme was set up to counteract the shortage of submarine technicians, predicted to impact by the end of the decade, by accelerating recruits through the training process without compromising the quality of that training.

Recruits must have a proven educational background, namely a minimum of 5 A* to C Grade GCSEs and 160 UCAS points from mainly STEM subjects before they are interviewed and selected with the expectation of first time success at every stage of training.

Upon completion, the graduates will be just as qualified as recruits who have completed training in the traditional time-frame but will then spend seven to eight months at sea to obtain practical experience.

Probationary Leading Engineering Technician PLET Chris Davies said, “The course has been really good and the staff have been very supportive throughout.”

His colleague on the course, PLET Dennis Muturuka agreed. “The coaching style is really good. The things we’ve been asked to do here, we’ve never done before. It’s really good fun.”

The section of the training undertaken by the recruits at RNLA HMS Collingwood saw them commanding a team tackling scenarios including flooding and disaster relief and will prepare them for the next stage of the Scheme which will be the Leading Hand Qualifying Course beginning in May.