Joining as an officer, but need one more GCSE..

[Cgoodwin]

Hello, I've come into a problem with my eligibility for officer training and I was wondering if any of you could help me or know of anyone who has had to go through similar issues in the past, and overcome them.

After a while of sitting on my ar*e wondering what to do next, I decided that I would want a short/mid term goal and wished to join with the forces. I've had a long think about all this entails and will accept all the responsibilities and actions needed to reach the level of competence required. After submitting two online forms, one for officer training and the other for soldier training, I felt like I finally had something to work towards short-mid term (4/5 years +). I called the recruitment center not long ago who told me that my officer application was eligible, but I received an email yesterday that told me It was not.

I checked over my ALIS and UCAS tarrif points and realized that the only thing I seemed to be missing is a science or language GCSE..

ALIS POINTS -
7 - drama
English language - 6
ICT - 5
Maths - 5
Graphics - 4
English Literature - 4
Science - 3
Music - 3
37

UCAS TARRIF (All A Levels)
Drama - C
Media Studies - D
Graphics - E

Also I have an FDA in Actor Training, for what it's worth in the military haha

I was wondering if there was any way I could hastily take/retake a GCSE and get a good grade with that, and If anyone else has had to do this before. I'm also wondering whether I should just stick with what I got and head into regular soldier training. Any advice would be greatly appreciated thank you!

[Zero_Higher]

Hi and welcome to the forum,

You conclude your post with a question that nobody else except for you can really answer.

I'm also wondering whether I should just stick with what I got and head into regular soldier training.

Officer and soldier careers are equally interesting but undoubtedly different. It should be noted that just because you have the required qualifications to apply for officer entry it does not mean you're automatically officer material. There are plenty of well educated blokes that I wouldn't trust to cross the road on their own, never mind command soldiers.

Your acting qual may come in handy as a one-pip-wonder.. When you have to act as if you know what is happening, while at the same time leaving everything alone so that the NCO's run things smoothly

I wouldn't base my choice on what anyone else thinks, you know better than anyone what your skills and interests are.

Do some research on both roles prior to forking out for extra quals.

Best of luck,

Zero.

[Cgoodwin]

Hey there, thanks for getting back to me

Sounds about right there lol.. Well, no harm in me giving it a shot - and if it don't work out then another GCSE in a foreign language could become very useful anyway haha

I would have thought I would have to leave pretty much everything to those at the NCO level in any case, experience is the best teacher after all haha

I'll weigh out my options and consider the best route, a few people have been saying it might just be easier to sign up for grunt training, and indeed it would; I suppose it's whether its worth the gamble to fork out for the extra qualifications. I've been told getting into Sandhurst is very competitive anyway, and granted I ain't 100% sure I would want to go through 44 weeks of training just to become an offer. I reckon I'll give the army recruitment line a ring and see what they say.

Thanks Zero