Royal Engineers - Careers and Trades

[Contractor]

Any ex Sappers who can advise on trades which should be avoided like the plague?

They all look pretty good to me with a wide variety of work, however, there maybe some which should be avoided.

Additionally, do 59 Cdo & 9 Para have places for all the trades that the Royal Engineers offer?

[= Jay =]

Engineers can get Attached to the Commandos and PARA's.

I think Combat Engineer would be the best Trade.

[combat-engineer]

Hi contractor,
Im going for the engineers as well. Im thinking about bricklayer and concretor, mainly due to working for a builders in the past (loved it! ) If Id done better in my schooldays, and had better GCSE's, I would have gone for plumbing and heating engineer (think of the money when you get back to civvie street!).
Im not sure what the score is with trades in 59 commando and 9para, but it says on the army website any Royal engineer can apply.

Jay,
All Royal Engineers are combat engineers first and foremost, then they have there own specialist trades. Its one of the things thats really attracted me to the engineers. You get to do soldiering as well as a skilled trade.

[adj125]

Engineers can get Attached to the Commandos and PARA's.

I think Combat Engineer would be the best Trade.

All Engineers are firstly soldiers then combat engineers then trades men

The main problem you can get is that after you have done your trade training you might not get to pratices any of it for some time depending if you get posted to a unit as a tradesman or combat engineer. I spent 9 years in the RE after doing my trade training(plant fitter now called fitter gen) and i only used my trade for the last 3 years But some guys did it all the time.

have a look here for some more advice

viewtopic.php?t=3455

[= Jay =]

sorry for mis-information...what can you expect.

i'm joining the Royal Signals

[Contractor]

Thank's one and all. The boy is off to RSC Lichfield tomorrow and he wasn't really sure on what trade he wanted (so many on offer!).

Will see what he scores on his tests at RSC for the differnt trades, perhaps he doesn't have to make a decision at this point.