The
Army is flying a recruitment team to St Lucia to enlist 500 soldiers in
October.
Colonel Wayne Harber, head of Army recruitment, told Personnel Today that
the military is spending £100,000 to send the recruiters and a medical team to
the Caribbean island.
But Harber says the process is £1,000 per candidate less than for home-grown
recruits because the Army saves on marketing.
It also saves the candidates money as Commonwealth applicants previously had
to fly to the UK for the selection process.
The Army has received 1,400 applications, which it has cut to a shortlist of
1,000. The recruitment team flying to St Lucia will perform 90 per cent of
candidate assessments on the island.
Harber stressed that the Army is not actively recruiting from overseas, but
was responding to the high number of applications.
"Potential recruits hear about the Army from the High Commission in
London and by word- of-mouth from their fellow countrymen already in the
British Army," Harber said.
