Making good: Pay attentio0n during a Field craft lesson new recruits

Report: Heidi Mines
Pictures: Graeme Main

HEADLINES of young lives lost to knife and gun crime have become a depressingly regular feature on Britain’s news bulletins.

Communities have been torn apart as children, some of them barely into their teenage years, have fallen victim to the rising levels of violence.

Aside from the heartache for families, the spate of brutal attacks has also tarnished the reputation of the nation’s inner-city youth and led to calls for tougher penalties or even the reintroduction of National Service.

While such a step is unlikely, the use of the military to coax young boys and girls back onto the straight and narrow is a tactic already being deployed by Huw Lewis’s Military Preparation College (MPC) scheme.

Since opening the doors of MPC Cardiff in 1999, the former Royal Welch Fusilier has founded five more centres where young people from difficult backgrounds and with incomplete educations are primed for entry into Phase One training.

Run by a mix of ex-Service personnel and serving soldiers, the centres – including the newest one in Portsmouth, which opened in 2007 – are already churning out dedicated young citizens who are making their mark in the Armed Forces.

“We have ex-drug addicts, kids who were formerly homeless and those from deprived areas. But despite their backgrounds the boys and girls have great military potential,” said Tony Keefe, a full-time instructor at the college.

“On our presentation nights at the end of the course, parents thank us for giving them back a different child.”

Acting as a stepping-stone, the college instils the basic skills needed to get young people fit, confident and strong enough to take on Phase One training across the Services. The only requirements for the rolling 22-week course are effort and respect.

Speaking to Soldier at the Portsmouth Territorial Army Centre, where the college is based, Keefe explained that he focuses on mentoring the students rather than bawling at them.

“The girls and lads complain if they are not disciplined. They want to train outdoors and do drill every morning,” he said.

Despite the challenges facing MPC staff in transforming youngsters from disruptive to disciplined, nearly three-quarters of all students who enrol on the course end up in the Armed Forces and often return to the college proudly wearing their military uniforms.

One successful graduate, Pte Josh Drane, (1 PWRR) told Soldier that the MPC’s help had been the catalyst in him breaking away from his troubled past.

The 20-year-old Hampshire resident was expelled from school and was a familiar face with the local police before signing up for the course.

“I have to say that if it wasn’t for the college and careers office I would not have got into the Army and achieved what I have so far,” said Pte Drane.

“I was turned down by the Armed Forces Careers Office on my first application to become a soldier due to my past, but they suggested I approach the college.

“I worked really hard on all areas including fitness and in the end I thought the exercise regime was harder at the college than it was during basic training.”

Although not every youth that passes through MTC’s doors will go on to become a Serviceman or woman, the skills taught at the colleges are invaluable assets in a wide
range of careers.

And for every student who manages to overcome seemingly impossible odds to get themselves onto the straight and narrow, there is further proof that Britain’s much-maligned next generation do not deserve their bad reputation.