Kiernan Matthew D, Repper Julie, Arthur Antony
Northumbria University Newcastle, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK.
Nottinghamshire Healthcare Trust, Nottingham, UK.
Work. 2015;52(4):921-34. doi: 10.3233/WOR-152208.
The British Army has over 100 career employment groups to which recruits may apply. The Infantry is one of these career employment groups; it accounts for 25% of the overall strength. It is of concern that Infantry recruit attrition within the first 12 weeks of training remains consistently above 30% . Poor selection methods that lead to the enlistment of unsuitable recruits have negative financial and personal consequences, but little is known about the personal experiences of those who fail.
The aim of this research was to understand why infantry recruits choose to leave and explore the personal experiences of those that fail.
This study draws on qualitative data from the second phase of a larger mixed method study. The foci of this paper are the findings directly related to the responses of recruits in exit interviews and their Commanding Officers' training reports. An exploratory qualitative, inductive method was used to generate insights, explanations and potential solutions to training attrition.
What the data describes is a journey of extreme situational demands that the recruits experience throughout their transition from civilian life to service in the British Infantry. It is the cumulative effect of the stressors, combined with the recruit being dislocated from their established support network, which appears to be the catalyst for failure among recruits.
There are clearly defined areas where either further research or changes to current practice may provide a better understanding of, and ultimately reduce, the current attrition rates experienced by the Infantry Training Centre.
英国陆军有100多个职业就业组，新兵可以申请加入。步兵是其中一个职业就业组；其人数占总兵力的25%。令人担忧的是，步兵新兵在训练的前12周内的流失率一直高于30%。导致招募不适合的新兵的糟糕选拔方法会产生负面的经济和个人后果，但对于那些失败的人的个人经历却知之甚少。
本研究的目的是了解步兵新兵选择离开的原因，并探究那些失败的人的个人经历。
本研究借鉴了一项更大规模混合方法研究第二阶段的定性数据。本文的重点是与新兵离职面谈的回答及其指挥官的训练报告直接相关的结果。采用探索性定性归纳法来深入了解、解释训练人员流失问题并提出潜在解决方案。
数据所描述的是新兵在从平民生活过渡到英国步兵服役的整个过程中所经历的极端情境需求之旅。压力源的累积效应，再加上新兵与他们已有的支持网络脱节，似乎是新兵失败的催化剂。
在一些明确界定的领域，进一步的研究或对当前做法的改变可能会更好地理解并最终降低步兵训练中心目前的流失率。
