The U.S. Navy is beginning to enlist people who didn’t graduate high school or earn a GED, marking the second time in about a year that the service has opened the door to underperforming recruits as it fights for meeting your enlistment goals.
The decision follows a measure adopted in December 2022 to incorporate a greater number of recruits with very low scores in the Armed Forces qualification test.
Both are fairly rare steps that the other military services largely avoid or limit, although they are all finding it increasingly difficult to attract the dwindling number of young people who can meet the military’s physical, mental and moral standards.
Under the new plan, Navy recruits without an educational credential will be able to join as long as they score 50 or higher on the qualifying test, which is out of 99.
The last time the service accepted people without educational credentials was in 2000.
The decision follows a measure adopted in December 2022 to incorporate a greater number of recruits with very low scores in the Armed Forces qualification test. us navy
“Every year we receive thousands of people at our recruiting stations who want to join the Navy but do not have an educational credential. And we just turned them down,” Vice Adm. Rick Cheeseman, Navy chief of staff, said in an interview Friday with The Associated Press.
He said that of the more than 2,400 who were rejected last year, up to 500 were able to score high enough to get in.
He said he has already sent an order to his recruiters to begin the new expanded effort, adding: “I expect all 2,442 of my recruiters have called in the last 72 hours, and we’ll see how it goes… I’ll try to get some test takers this weekend week”.
Navy recruits without an education credential will be able to join as long as they score 50 or higher on the qualifying test, which is out of 99.
In the wake of the pandemic, the services have faced significant readiness challenges. COVID-19 forced the military to close recruiting stations and was closed to high schools and many public event fairs where they were historically successful in reaching potential candidates.
But even as things opened up, the military struggled to compete with better-paying companies in the tight labor market, particularly when companies began offering the types of benefits – such as college funding – that had often made the military a popular choice. .
Those economic problems were only exacerbated by the country’s stark political divide and young people’s fears of being killed or injured in the war.
Last fiscal year, which ended Sept. 30, the Navy, Army and Air Force did not meet their recruiting goals, while the Marine Corps and the small Space Force did meet their goals.
The Navy is the only service that enlists anyone considered a “category four” recruit, meaning they scored a 30 or less on the qualification test. us navy
Last fiscal year, the Army was 15,000 short of its enlistment goal of 60,000, and the other services had to turn to late-entry candidate pools to meet their recruiting numbers.
Last year, the Navy’s enlistment goal was 37,700, but the service contributed only 31,834. This year, Cheeseman said, he set the goal higher: 40,600. The total size of the Navy by 2024 is set at 337,800 troops.
“I need these sailors. So it’s an ambitious goal. “We are telling our recruiters to get 40,600 people into the Navy,” he said. “We don’t expect to get that many. But let’s go for it.”
Recruits exercise during a strength and conditioning module at the U.S. Navy Recruit Training Command in Great Lakes, Illinois.
The other services have largely opposed such changes.
The Navy is the only service that enlists anyone considered a “category four” recruit, meaning they scored a 30 or less on the qualification test.
The service expanded the number of category four recruits, arguing that several jobs, such as cook or boatswain, do not require a high overall test score as long as they meet job standards.
The Army will only accept candidates with the lowest scores in the so-called Future Soldier Preparation Course, which gives them weeks of instruction and the opportunity to raise their score so they can qualify and enlist.
Rear Adm. Ryan M. Perry, Navy chief information officer, delivers a speech during a graduation review ceremony at Recruiting Training Command in Great Lakes, Illinois, March 24, 2023. U.S. Navy .
The Navy allows recruits with low scores to take its future sailor preparation course, but does not require a higher score to enlist.
Additionally, the Army and Marine Corps require a high school diploma or GED equivalent, and the Air Force said it will only accept recruits without a diploma if they score 65 or higher on the qualifying test. Those numbers are very small: Only 110 of the nearly 26,900 Air Force recruits brought in last year had a GED or no educational credentials.
Other services express concern that lower-performing recruits are more likely to leave boot camp or could have more disciplinary problems over time.
Cheeseman said he believes the biggest risk is that they fail training camp at higher rates, but he said the difference hasn’t been significant so far for low-scoring recruits brought in last year. Overall, 11.4% of those recruits did not finish boot camp, compared to less than 6.5% of high-scoring sailors.
He said Navy leaders had been talking about opening enlistment to those without high school credentials for some time in an effort to broaden the pool of potential sailors.
“We finally decided, OK, let’s go,” he said, adding that the service was looking for other ways to reach untapped talent. “My argument for accepting that risk is that we have training camp capacity. We are not filling the seats. So I’m willing to take the risk.”
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Source: vtt.edu.vn