Flying start to Royal Navy careers

Last month the first seven officer trainees on the Flying Start scheme passed out of the Britannia Royal Navy College (BRNC). Under the scheme, potential pilots and observers are awarded 120 points towards an Open University degree on completing the 12-month basic officer training at Dartmouth. They can then continue with the OU to complete their degree by gaining the other 240 points as and when they are ready.
The advantage for the Royal Navy is that it gets its aircrew younger so they can fly for longer, while the individual is paid while gaining a degree and is not left with student debt. The OU gains students and satisfied customers who will be able to influence others to study with it.
According to Bill Searle, Learning Qualifications Manager, 85 per cent of those at BRNC arrive as graduates, meaning that they will have a short flying career due to the physical requirements demanded by flying. 'What we would like to do is to get younger people in so we can keep them in the Navy longer. The trend over the last 20 years has reversed. Today most individuals and their parents would rather our trainees gain a degree.'
Trainee-observer Dave Walker from Sunderland said: 'I didn't really get the grades to do anything worthwhile at university and doing it this way I can fly for longer since I started younger.' Another trainee, George Thompson from Tunbridge Wells, assessed the scheme's financial benefits. 'If I'd been at university for three years, I'd have been getting into £10,000-worth of debt, instead, on this scheme, I could be earning £40,000.'
Matthews Fooks-Bale from Great Yarmouth had his A-levels disrupted by appendicitis. So he worked in Minorca as a sailing teacher while he thought about his options, and now wants to start a degree in natural sciences with biology in February 2003. 'Having a degree will help, even though the qualifications I gain through my flying will be sufficient. The degree will give me a bit of extra security and show initiative.'
Minister for the Armed Forces, Adam Ingram, thinks that 'Flying Start is a first-class idea that shows the Armed Forces keeping pace with modern life.'
There are no academic entry requirements for the Open University. The Royal Navy requires people to be aged under 21 upon entry to the BRNC Dartmouth to join Flying Start. For more information telephone 0870 333 1444.
Today most individuals and their parents would rather our trainees gain a degree
Flying Start is a first-class idea that shows the Armed Forces keeping pace with modern life