Army chooses value over volume as instructors get less shouty with new recruits

The sound of a military instructor barking at troops is perhaps a familiar sound to personnel past and present.

But now, the British Army is changing the way it treats recruits.

Brigadier Andrew Garner, Commandant of the Soldier Academy, told Forces News recruits might have historically feared their instructor but that is not what the Army is now trying to achieve.

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"Historically, I think recruits may well have been slightly scared of their instructors but that's not what we're trying to portray at all," he said. 

"It's not easy. So joining the Army is not an easy process. But that experience should not be something that people don't enjoy."

But does this mean the Army has gone soft? 

Brig Garner doesn't think so. "At no point are we changing the standard," he said.

"This is all about now, getting the recruit to the standard."

Captain Oliver Pritchard, Instructor, Soldier Academy, told Forces News it is not a "Bad Lads Army anymore", referring to the 2002 TV documentary series which followed 30 'bad lads' over a four-week period as they went through 1950s-style basic training.

He added that it is not about trying to get rid of people, but instead developing them and making them into soldiers.

"If they're here, they're clearly suitable… our job is then to get them across the line," he said.

"There's no longer this shouting and screaming all the time," he said.

"It's not soft at all, it's very much the same standard. It's very much just the approach in which we unlock the recruits' potential, that's the thing that has changed.

"Using technology, being more empathetic, but by no means have we become soft – firm but fair is the way I like to put it."