General Talk
37: Episode 37: Army Apprentices Part 2
I couldn't tell who we got here. Hi, this is Whitney Neil. How old is he? He's about nine. Right, how long have you been looking after him for? I've been in the next two and a half years. He's my favourite. You're favourite? He's a bit naughty. What do you like when he's over next time? A bit lazy, but sometimes he can get a fresh one a Monday morning, because we have Sunday off. He likes a buckling of squeal. He's not a jumper. He's not very talented. He's amazing. He's not very good. He's just very good at his job. Got my mini cup 21, introducing us to Whitney Neil, great strapping out of a black horse named after the gin, who is a wheeler, and half of a gun team's brakes in the King's troop Royal Horse artillery. I'm Harry Bucknell, and at this most edition of General Talk, we continue our journey to the world of army apprentices. The largest apprentice training scheme in Britain. The program begins in Woolwich, at King George VI lands, as Dunner's Mini Cook and Chiara Sullivan explain what it takes to be an apprentice equine groom in the nation's ceremonial suit in battery, whose burnished guns and imagine horses play a key role on stage occasions. While Charlie Kingston of the Colleges Partnership, which supports a number of the army apprentices initiatives, talks about the work involved to become qualified equine groom. In the second half of the podcast, we move from ceremonial to operational, as we travel nearly 500 miles to the castle martin ranges in Pembroxure, on the south-western tip of Wales, where the engineering operative apprentices of the Royal Giant Guards are beginning their work-up training prior to the residence deployment to Estonia, on Operation Cabaret, in which British troops lead a multinational battle group, as part of NATO's enhanced forward presence in the Baltic states to reassure allies and deter our adversaries. But first, it's back to Gala Mini Cook and her horse, Whitney Neil, the gentle giant who rides a squeal with excitement. He's a black, he's come from Ireland, presumably, and you've had to hog his mane, he looks in an active order, he's lovely coat on him, and you say do you see women, what are you doing to make him look as smart as you do at the moment? So he gets clipped regularly, so it's like a cycle, we go through all the horses, so we start one end, going through them, and then we're going back to the top, so it's quite repetitive. The reason he's hog, when they're remounts, they have mains, and as soon as they pass the training, they get the mains taken off, he's not a fan of him, his mane off, so we have to treat him like a little baby that he is. He's a wheeler, he's a bit fatter, a bit more stockier, and the leaders are a bit taller, a bit slimmer. So he's in the back of the train as well. He's the brakes. He's the brakes. He wants to go to the centre, but he's not very good at it, he thinks he's in wheels, he thinks he's in the brakes, and he needs to move forward, so he likes to be in the brakes. So who does he, he's a britain when he's in the brake, he has a pass, here with who's his or her? So we have a big four other wheelers, and we're training one at the moment, there's a namar, Dave, so he's after his friends that he has. So when you're right on parade and you've got to do, it's fast maneuvering, how do you train him out to do that? So when they're remounts, they have to take a sword, they have to learn how to take harness. It's all just very slowly taught, slowly teach them, and then once they're ready, we've been on draft parade, and you kind of just kind of have to breathe it, put them in centre. So they start off in centre and ride centre, and then they do a few parades in ride centre and a few draft parades, and they have to do one-trot drive and two camps of drives until that's then passed out, and then when you think they're ready, they just slowly go back into the road. So you arrive here at the King of Super Eve, in George's Six Lines, in Woolwich, and you and how are we when you join the army? Sixteen, I was sixteen, and I was seventeen when I joined the King of Street. And so you always want to join the King of Street? Yes, so join the army too, join the King of Street. And how do you work with horses before you join the army? Only for three and a half years. Do you know, it's just a ponytail of things over there. Yeah, a ponytail of them. A dibbit show jumping. What's the most exhilarating thing that you find about riding with the King of Street? The gallop out of Windsor is definitely my favourite, even in detachment or centre, it's my favourite thing to do. Gives you a shiver down in the spine. When you're formed up and you're about to set off, you're just like fuzzy feelings. And I was willing, when he hears the torture, how does he react? He squeals. He squeals. (Music) (Music) (Music) (Music) (Music) (Music) (Music) (Music) The music would drive the King's street ball horse artillery, at the Windsor World to 2 in May 2011. What's his routine by day? How do you start off with what time does Whitney get up? Well, you're supposed to get up at six, he definitely wakes up a bit later than that. If you have someone on duty who will start, they'll feed them up at seven. Because his breakfast at seven will come in for about half-sevenish. They get mucked out, swept through, their water will get done and they'll get hay. Nine o'clock we have a tree pecs, so you'll ride one horse and you'll have one in each hand. We'll go around London. Come in, groom them. You're riding one, you're leading one, you're leading two. You'll have one in each hand, so you'll be leading two horses. That's good for you. Yes. They're very well trained. They're just known to follow you. But then on their hand, haven't you? You've seen that recent incident where our horses have bolted. And they could damage you, what would you do in that situation? Just relax. They're quite, if you're stressed out there, they're very stressed out as well. And we're quite good, we kind of know our horses, so we know not to put these two together. And these three will be good together. And we kind of rotate who's in riding, who's in hand. Of course, if they get the wind up the tail, you can never, you can never touch that. They'll suddenly... We do sometimes let go of horses, but they get dealt with very well. Absolutely, I'll show that to you. Well listen, let's go in, let's go in now. I meet Charlie, you're an instructor, and we're going to talk about the clothes from the side. They're being an equine groom in the Kingdom Street. How's that? Charlie, how are you? Good, thank you. I'm the College's partnership. And Millie and Cara are both doing their apprenticeship in their equine groom apprenticeship. And they're both looking towards getting their end point assessment done in June. So beginning very close to the end, we're just getting the final bits of evidence. So the evidence is right across the board, the whole of looking after the horses, riding the horses, dealing with them when they're being easy, difficult, turning them out. Obviously, they're very high sounds of turnout here in the King Street, so they have to, as you can see, a lot of work goes into producing a horse to this standard. And so during the apprenticeship, I helped the girls to gather the evidence of them, just doing their daily routine, their daily work. And then we pick up on not just what they do, but why they do it. So they have to have the background knowledge of why they pick up the hoof in a particular way, why they use a particular product to deal with a particular skin condition, why they have to use certain restraints for the horses when they're trying to do things that might be quite challenging with them. So they have to understand why, as well as what. And the apprenticeship really gives them that proof that they can do all these activities, but also why we do those activities in the industry. The majority of the things that they do are similar to what we do in the rest of the equine industry, but the military do have some areas where they do different things. So we have to make sure that they also know and can do the civilian version. Things like the tack that they ride in is quite different from the tack we ride in the civilian world. So while we talk about tack, let's go and finish. I'm going to see a miniature saddle. Who's going to talk me through the miniature saddle, which is peculiar. Why is it peculiar? He's got the two wooden panels that lay off the on the felt and on the blanket. And so it's different from your solids over there, your GP saddles, which are highly padded. And it's just one piece, isn't it? Based on if you look at the photographs of the soldiers in the First World War there, riding a saddle looks very much like this, this really hasn't changed greatly. So this spreads the load, obviously they're just spent a lot of time in the saddle, and so it spreads the load of the rider and of the kit. And obviously then you can strap additional kit on as well. Like we've got all the kit structures and stuff. We'll make you sit up next, because you mean to sit up? Yeah. How's their position on a posture? They're excellent, they're riding is excellent. You're some of them. Yeah. And so when did you come and join the army? How long have you been serving the King's troop for? I've probably been in the troop like three and a half years. And do you want to join the King's troop? Yeah. And you come from a riding background and how long have you been riding horses for? Pretty much my whole life, to be honest. The whole soldiers are in the King's troop. How many are, you said, some are being trained as apprentices. They're still being trained up to be a bit careful horses. So how many, what's the percentage of apprentices in the army? Well it tends to be if they, if the person I love chooses to, or the unit wants to put them forward to do their RRI, which is the regimental riding instruction on course, which they do at Melton, then this is a prerequisite for it. So they have to have proven that they've got the equine groom, which is their level two apprenticeship, before they're going for two. The current soldiers that are on the scheme that are getting towards their end are all, they're looking towards them, all going on their RRI course. Yeah. So you're getting up, you get ready, surely. They're a stripe. You can't go as a gunner, but in your local rank. There's a lance bomb, yeah. Yeah, so you just wear it, it's lovely, but you're not actually... As an apprentice, you're bringing a mark for promotion in due course, aren't you, you're being, you are indentified, you're being single as an early stage, as a prospect. How long do you want to stay in the army for? I just want it to us as long as I can. As long as I can. How about you? I'm probably a bit sick of it, but I don't know about it. Yeah, I quite like it still in the army. I'm sure you'll handle the stable manager, but when it comes down to the actual access, and a new ring of the gun teams, and so on, and all that side of it, that's definitely the premium to the king's troop itself. It is, yeah. That's something that they don't have to do that for their apprenticeship, so we just work to the apprenticeship standards, which are the same as if I was teaching in a civvy yard, we follow the set of standards that are set down by the awarding body, and that will cover them riding, jumping, lunging, looking care for the horse, et cetera. But the part of the job that these guys do as king's troop, we don't get involved in that, and that isn't part of the apprenticeship. But the care you know, parts of it still cover criteria, so obviously they're still caring for the horses, producing it, turning it out, public display, making sure that they're fed, watered, looked after correctly. All of that comes into it, but the part where they're out, pulling the guns, no, that's not my leadership. And how long do you think they can apprentice in the king's troop? Well, to complete their qualification, the equine groom is a 12 month qualification, so they spend 12 months doing their publication, and then they do their end point assessment with an external, an external body, an external examiner comes in and will examine them, so I will do the work with them and we'll build the evidence, and then someone else comes in. That's continuous assessment, and who comes in? A British horse society or something? No, we have end point assessment companies who are verified to come in and do that, to come in and assess there. Is there a one day exam? Yeah, so have a one day of an examiner coming in, seeing them go through their paces, see them work with the horses in the stables, and see them turning them out, speak to them about the different types of kit and the tack that they use and equipment, then they'll see them ride and jump, and see them maybe load a horse, unload a horse, ask them around how they travel horses safely and legally, all those things are covered within the, can be covered within that examination day. How many paces have you got on your book? Are you looking after here? Well, we've just signed on some new paces, we've just signed on 14 new paces, and so we've now, around 20, are paces that we have here, and we've got another couple who want to sign on as well. So, if we've just come back and come riding, we've just had his head because they cannot. So, the first thing we do is check their mouth, because we have had a PMR in their mouth, which is quite a strong bit. We have to make sure that they haven't been bleeding through the borders of their mouth and so on. And then, obviously, where they get rid of two reins on the PMR, so they've got the top ring and the bottom ring. And if you're in detachment, you'll always ride them off of the bottom ring, and then when they're in team, they've only got one ring, she'll be six on the top, or the bottom, and then we have strong horses. Yeah, it's dependent on the house, strong horses, and then... We've got, we don't wait to hear, he's a strong horse, he's a class strong horse. No, he's quite relaxed. Well, what's your horse called, everyone? I've got Jake. Is Jake, does he pull a bit? Jake is a very strong boy. He's one of the leaders, so he's like right at the front, and he's very strong. What's your little trick to keep him in check when he gets a bit boisterous? With him, it's mostly like using your body weight rather than using your hands, because, obviously, where the bit is, can be quite severe if it's used properly. It's more focusing on using your body weight to control the horses, rather than just pulling them in the mouth. Come back for Friday, we'd have to pick out their feet, because if we're in the arena, they'd have to have sand, out in the field, they'd have mud in there. You just check if the shoe is loose, and they've got clenches, which is the nails. Make sure they're all smooth, because if they've got clenches, they'll just kick. You're picking up his hoof here now, so it's beautiful. There's a foggy, clean as a whistle, isn't it, really? I think he's just had his shoes done, because he's not very, very nice. They're firing his shoes on, yeah, very much. So his coat looks exactly, he's got a great shower on it. What did you do to feed him? What feed you, giving him to make sure he shines his business like this? So we have almost like dieticians in a way that come in, and they'll look through every single horse in the troop. They'll feel them. Yeah, they'll feel their confirmation, and their weight, and everything like this. And then they will provide us with the food that is necessary for them. And how many times did you feed him off? They get fed twice. What type of alternative is that? So they'll get fed breakfast at around seven o'clock in the morning, and then they get dinner at about half past four. And you feed your own horses, do you? So we'll have like a duty person who takes over the lions around four o'clock-ish, and they're in charge of feeding all the horses up at half past four in their specific set of lions. What is the hardest aspect of being a princess equine groomer at the king's troop feud? For me, I think it's trying to balance work alongside doing the apprenticeship. Because in a way, you can take a video of me doing things and it does help towards my apprenticeship. But then it's also trying to find the time to then... Get someone to video it. Someone's always got a video. It's a video diary, I'm keeping it. Yeah, well, our job's very hard and quick pace. It's not really, we don't really have breaks. The only time we have a break is a lunchtime that's now, and it gets a cat. So who videos who? I don't just grab any more hand, literally anybody. And then it goes on some phone, we'll just go file somewhere. Yeah, we send it to Charlotte. And you have to then, as it downshark, you've got to cut all this, how many movies down there? No, I don't even, what I do is I go through them and I work out whereabouts during the video, they hit the criteria for their qualification and then I'll make a set for lists to say, so then I'll tell them that they've hit certain criteria and then we see what else they need to do in the videos and we see all the discussions we have to have to fill in the gaps. So, what is for you is the greatest challenge of being an army apprentice of a huge group in an equine room? Time management probably. About the same really, because we're trying to get, like, our riding, we don't really do much civilian riding, so we don't jump that often because the horses, all the guncarriages so much, they're really helpful. It's a bit unfair to make them jump and then pull guns the next day. So, we're going like tree pecs, if we're not doing draft braids. You can't really video someone on a tree pecs because you're obviously holding a hand horse. So, how do you get rid of that? If you have to record the evidence, how do you follow them in the car? Well, we get some, there's all some on foot. Yeah. Just keeping an eye so we'll get other people out of video then. We're quite lucky because we've ridden before and I used to have my own horse when I was in tripe, so I have videos off my civilian horse. I just sent over and they hit the criteria that I need to do. So, then, do you go work but if you get people that some sort of record of your work, so you can refer back to it all? Well, for Milly and Cara, they started off on an e-portfolio, so they had an electronic portfolio that they were working on, but we found that they actually were gathering the evidence paper base, so we're doing a combination of both. Are you nervous about the great examination day? Are you really nervous about that? No. Another day? I think I could probably just go into it now, even though I've completed it. Yeah. And, assuming that all goes well, will there be a party afterwards to celebrate your apprenticeship? Of course. Yeah. Any stuff? Oh, can I cook? Can I serve them? I'm triking, so thank you very much. My guests on general talk. And also, Whitley, thank you very much for being our guest. Yeah, welcome. It's all. Hey, what do you see by our way? [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] Land of my father's, sung by the best male voice of all. There it is, from Evan Willich to Royal Wells, with the crews of the Rode-Goon guards, warrior armor fighting vehicles. Our live firing, prior to the prominent in the Baltic. We are here with a Tarrant Chassen Ferrari of the Rode-Goon guards. Chassen, where are we? Hello, we are at Range 2, Castle Martin, firing the warrior for his squadron. We have three shoes from LFX2, all the way up to LFX8, which will be nothing to you. But those are the shoes. Up to LFX5 is essentially the annual crew test. So this qualifies crews to then deploy on operations in their vehicles. Then enables us to do a live fire tactical exercise called the CalFEX in approximately three weeks time with the battlefield. [MUSIC] So yes, we are conducting this training at CalFEX to prepare us to deploy to Estonia on Ocubret 15. That will see us moving out there in September for a six-month tour. And the aim of that tour is to demonstrate First of all, demonstrate NATO's capability and presence in the area. This will be done through large-scale international military exercises while throughout there. And also having a permanent presence of NATO force in the region. Secondly, is to deter. So we are deterring any form of aggression to our friends in Baltic states from any form of Russian aggression. And how do you feel about going out there? I'm excited, so this will be my first operation deployment. I've been lucky. I've had the full training pipeline of my troop. So from October of 2023, we've entered the training pipeline going all the way through Castle Martin Rangers back then. Through some numerous mounted exercises on sorts of play and going all about the battle group level exercises. Which has been really good, so it's brought a lot of troop cohesion, brought that competence level of the squadron and the troops up to a really high level now through the intense training period we've had. This will then culminate in the actual live fire exercise we'll go on in a few weeks time, where we'll spend numerous days under armour in Castle Martin in a tactical scenario whilst also firing live rounds, which will be really exciting. Following that we'll go to a brief period of summer leave before then deploying to Estonia in September. And how many apprentices have you got in your troop at the moment? In my troop, I have three on the apprenticeship scheme, and most of those I've recently done. They are in point assessments, which essentially, once they've done their apprenticeship scheme, they get an assessment from me answering them, sort of asking them numerous questions on not only sort of behavioural stuff, but also military field work competence, that sort of stuff. And then the actual engineering side of it is done through the experts. But not for you! Good shot. But for you the advantages of having apprentices in your troop. So the apprenticeship scheme, I think, gives them a wider contextual knowledge of the sort of the mechanical workings of the vehicle. So yes, they get that from their Phase 2 training down in Bloomington, their sort of specific to role training. But the apprenticeship scheme gives them a wider knowledge of their job and their specialty. And this also transfers into them gaining qualifications, which helps them in the civilian sector. It gives them, you know, they have some sort of coursework to do, which also helps develop their sort of English language and literature skills, writing, producing work, which is an additional burden for the troopers to take on here on the course. But it actually develops them quite well, I think. Great stuff. Cassie, let's go inside. Sure. Well, that's tough. Now, so here we are, we are now in the range tower, on which range? Cassie. Range 2, cosmonon. Range 2, cosmononon. And the range tower in the, in the, out of the rain, out of the wind. And I've got, with me here, a couple, two, a couple, Jonathan, rather, and to be Charlie Bafflin. And Major Brent Taylor from the Royal Stott's Screen Guards, who runs the apprenticeship scheme for the Royal Army Corps in Bloomington. Charlie, tell them about your background, where did you come from, and how did you end up in the Army? So I come from, you know, Brighton, and yeah, I, you have to pre-took a life until I was joining the Army. I was at work retail, and work my work through there, and I had my department under me. And I kind of looked back at myself, I remember finishing at a really long day's work, probably about 11, 13, 9, and I was doing my friends around, you know, having a big time on a Friday night. And I came to realise that I was there doing schedules and road tours, and it wasn't what I wanted for me. It's a big world, there's a lot to do, it's a lot fun to be had. And just managing the materials and what I had envisioned for myself. So I started with the other avenues of employment, things like that, and the Army fell on my radar. Obviously there's a lot to be done in where it costs my age of now. There's, you know, I've been doing some really, really cool stuff here, far better than the office job I'm saying. So I applied, and then within three months I'd done my assessment centre, and was getting shipped off to Catrick for basic training up there. And what makes you much stronger to doing jobs? So I knew I wanted to do something with scope. As much as, you know, every aspect of the Army is intricate in its own way. And I wanted something that, if I had worked with the Army, you know, after 5, 10 years, I would still have, you know, transferable skills. So I knew I wanted to do the article. And then I looked into the different job roles, and I realised that the arm of the constant was what I really wanted to get stuck into. And then, yeah, the Army team was kind of the, obviously, hedge capital. And the ceremony was less appealing to me. And the Army team is close to home for me, so it keeps me kind of connected with those, you know, people, my family and friends. But I also have the exact job role on it, so I'm very happy about that. It's a very different life from selling things in a shop. What's the attraction of getting stuck into an engine? Do you ever think you'd be involved in mechanics? So I've always been quite mechanically minded. You know, I was one of the kinds of things that came back into the lecture and the techniques and all of that. And it was kind of, it really stood out to me as the obvious choice. You know, the transferable skills mean, you know, mechanical engineering is everywhere. You know, outside of the Army. So it was a clear kind of cut choice. And then they made clear to me when I was signing up that, you know, they would develop my skills and they'd invest in me. So that when I moved on to the Army, I would be good stead. Couple of crowds. What do you like about the job, working with the Royalty Green Guards? Your role specifically? I love the practical side of it. A lot of it is quite physical. And a lot, the way the article works is a large portion of it, which is dismounted, and the other half is mounted. And you get a mingle with both sides of it. So you get a pile of skills from whichever end you want to go with. It's just about mechanical engineering, so it can be about the good and the reasonable life. But it can be about the idioms of everyone. It's level two. So it's, you know, it's starting off engineering, but it's very, it transfers. The skills that they do on their initial courses are transferable. It's a simply qualification. You used to change that? Sorry? You used to change that? Yeah, but I've got a lot of the maintenance, obviously. The maintenance and the skills and the non-skills and the behaviors. So all the apprenticeship, they're not just taught and they're finished, they're probably going to get about, you know, maintenance and engineering. They're also talking about behaviors, whether it be how you can do it yourself in British society. The full scope of being a good person and a good military person. Making you confident, making a better city and doing anything with somebody like yourself, which can guarantee that neither of these two soldiers would be able to do before they joined the Army. Probably not. Yeah, but the Army is all about getting the confidence and skills for your life. So you are now a driver for Warion. Yes. How do you find driving the Warion? It is one of the high nights that we've got a day to day here. I didn't drive before before doing the Army, so probably put me through my katsy and all of that. Sorry, kappy. And then my cat age, my track vehicle license. It is remarkably easy to pick up and drive, but there's definitely a scale to the skill that we, you know, anyone can get it going forwards and backwards, but to traverse the train we have to and do it well so that the gunners and the commanders could still do their jobs and not come out with, you know, a couple of bruises is definitely a skill level there that would be low. Good brakes. Yes, yeah, very good brakes. You can stop, I believe, in half vehicles length, but that will be bringing the entire back, including any of your mounted troops in the back, way up in the air, and they will be feeling it and probably care if they want to get out. Tell them about the V80s with per contention you've got on board. It's about 550 horsepower if properly maintained, I believe. On a road you'll get up to about 46 miles an hour, but obviously over a rough train. You won't be going that quickly. Our idea is, unless you absolutely have to, it's a powerful and very loud engine. And there is a reason we're all issued a very coherent protection, and it is because you feel it. Well it's the best bit that I've been a driver. Probably when you really get going, when you want exercise and you can see where you're going, depending on the commander, but the my commander is very good at going. I want to get over there, take me there, however you see there. I think the troops have their own vehicles with their own crews. Mine is specific and I'm assuming it's the most other crew. Stick to them, they're one vehicle and that one driver is really quite responsible for it. My wagon is down there, up to 93. What was your reaction, Charlie, when you heard you were going to bring our apprentices? I was happy about it. I would be happy with job even without some of these extra benefits. It was one of those job things, really quite fulfilling, but the added incentive of being able to build your skills and the personal development involved is very attractive. And again, I joined because I knew I would be able to develop myself even outside of the scope of the military. How long does the apprenticeship teach you? It's a couple of years, but it sounds like a long time, but when you consider the fact you're just doing it alongside your job, it's not like it's back for a couple of years. In a class learning all these skills, it's all kind of taught on the job. You just, you know, of an evening, you go, I'm going to spend half an hour doing some of the paperwork or whatever, and you just use the lessons, you've already been taught down in a tank park, and by your peers, and then Jenny, come on. You're getting an operation showing your time level even more precious. Will you carry on your apprenticeship training while you're at operations? Yeah, I intend to take a fresco course like that and just dip into it when I can, when I feel like it. It's one of those things I'm quite used to take away. You get your booklets of questions and tests and things like that, and they go right, get this done, and whether you do it on leave, whether you're doing it on camp, it's all very flexible. What is the most challenging aspect of your apprenticeship? A lot of it is just applying a knowledge elsewhere. It's not all completely what is specific. There is a lot of it that they kind of put into a broader scope and spectrum for you to, you know, to challenge yourself to apply this to something outside of the Warrior 510, which obviously if I were to leave, I would be working with, but it's just taking those lessons and putting them into a language that is perhaps more general and less specific to, you know, the volumes of the 70-litre transmission on the Warrior. You go, okay, well, I know that I would check my vehicle handbook for the transmission if I'm my astronaut, for example. It's just, it can be given sometimes to take yourself back back, the green headspace that the Indiana gives you if this is my lack of a go. Actually, it has a broader scope. John's a view as a gunner. What's the most challenging aspect of your training? So, how's it going? There's not much challenge to it. Part of the effort is straightforward. Retaining the information and being able to talk with all the skills is a bit challenging but not too bad. Where we've worked, we, today, four-week course of gunnering, where they teach you from zero to zero, and then they take you in the wagon, do your webinar and test, get your thunder, and then you have like a six-week period where you have to go on a syringe and fire. Once you do that, when you're fully full to be a gunner, and then, obviously, part of it is really good for you. We've come down a syringe to fire a lot and do a wildfire, and I could do it now. Custom iron is really good for retaining the skill, because we've got 800s here throughout the whole period. Brett, when you, so when you joined, you joined and you were told that we were given a train, what was the difference between the trade you got as a tank driver and the trade these young men get as a principal? So, when I joined, I got, I did get given a trade. I got trained as an achievement driver, and it was a big selling point for joining the Armed Forces button, but if I had left the Armed Forces a few years later, after training as a achievement driver, explaining the skills that I had achieved as a achievement driver to a potential employer, I'd have really struggled, because they would not understand the language that I was using, and I would not have communicated that language. The beauty of the apprenticeship that these soldiers now undertake is that it gets them understanding about the lifelong learning and continuous development throughout their professional careers, but also, they cannot, the knowledge skills and behaviours that their apprenticeship gives them, a level to engineering operative, that their all-armour course soldiers have undertaken. It means that if they do decide to leave the forces, and we hope they decide to stay, because their apprenticeship still develops them as a soldier, but if they do decide to leave, when they go and speak to a potential employer, and they can say, "Well, what did you do?" "Well, I'm a warrior driver, as is Triple Badfield." "Okay, so what does that equate to? Well, it means this, but also, while I was doing my warrior driver course, alongside it, I qualified as a level to engineering operative apprentice, and that potential employer can then go straight away and go, "Ah, I know exactly that the knowledge skills and behaviours that you've learned while taking that apprenticeship as a warrior driver in the British Army." But presumably, that apprenticeship trained it, he has prepared us also for the right, and also it motivates him to stay with me on forces too. Yeah, absolutely, because the discussion that they undertake and while they're doing their apprenticeships, with their chain of command, and with the service providers and not the apprenticeship team he's supported and can get, is all about developing their skills and their confidence. It's not about preparing them to be a civilian, it's about making them a better soldier at the more confident leader within the British Army. Do you think the apprenticeship scheme makes a better soldier's? Absolutely, yes, and I think it's a very good thing for retention because our soldiers recognise that the British Army is investing in them as a person, and not just as a soldier, but as a more rounded person, so absolutely yes. Charlie, we're now inside your driver's space. Yes, it took me through what we're here here. So, to my left, I've got my driver's instrument panel, so that is all of my readings from speed to revs to fuel. It also has about half a million buttons. They'll turn on the battery master, engine master, which will start up the wagon. I've got my starter selector switches for my different starter motors and then all of my light controls here. Now, here we are in 9-3, so what's your routine with 9-3? What do you do with how do you deal with every day? How do you maintain your vehicle? So, every day we'll do a first parade, so that will be checking all of the running gear to make sure they are all in good order. Tracks aren't too worn out, there's no lack of oil in any of the road hubs, final drives. We'll also then check all of the oil levels for the transmission and engine oil, make sure they're in good order. We've got just the general kind of hull checks to make sure there's no damages that we would, you know, want to avoid. So, rear bins missing, for example, or any of the kind of hardware on the front that holds any of our kit in place. You're lying, you're almost rolled back in the seat. How do you find it? Is it comfortable being in this position? It is weirdly comfortable, there's a lot more leg room that you can't necessarily see down by the pedals. The seat is very adjustable, I'm looking forward to up and down, which is... The driver seat is easy, the most comfortable seat in the wagon. Yeah, it's not too bad. And how do you find, when your commander gives you instructions to get an FK right, a 4-door, how do you find actually when you've got your hatch down and your hull down, how do you find that in terms of maneuvering? So, visibility when you've got the hatch down is a lot worse, you can kind of see from 10 o'clock to 2 o'clock in front of you. I far prefer driving with the hatch up, but it's one of those, that's when you just trust your commander and that they know what they're doing and they're not going to put you in a ditch. You're putting a ditch yet? No, not yet, no, I... You sunk? Nope, no sinking, no ditches, a couple of deep puddles that, you know, if your hatch up will splash you in the face, but that's all part of the fun. Okay, so, Charlie, here we are now, we've got this beautiful V8 diesel packing engine, taught me through it. So, we've got the engine block back there, got your cylinders, these gigantic things here are your radiators. They are very weighty and very slippery in the rain, so be careful not to tread on them. You call on the system? Come on now. Now, she runs on diesel, water endurance, how much diesel do you put in, and where do you feel and how does it work? So, if your cap is just up there next to the turret, you'll get about 740 litres in it and that'll get you on a road about 410 miles. Obviously, it all depends on the wagon, some are slightly less efficient, some are slightly more. You're the first parader every day, where do you check the engine levels and stuff like that? So, my engine levels will be up here, under the hatch, under the crochet's seat there. Very easily done, you just lift the hatch, you've got your fuel filters down there, and oil filters, and then it's just a couple of dipsticks. You've also got your coolant cap. You can't talk about your comrades' dipsticks. You've also got your coolant cap under there, you just check, make sure that's at a decent level. Provide it, it's not been running and it is too hot. That's great stuff. Okay, let's go back into the hatch and we're going to go back into the turret, we're going to talk through it a couple further. Here we go, right bloody hell. A few years since I've been back in here, here we are, in the turret, all the war air feet. And I've got here a couple of drills I'm trying to add. You are the gunner, take us through the turret, we're all looking at it. So, I'm going to see you're in the commander's seat. On the right-hand side of you, you have the commander's instrument panel. So, on that, you have your BGTI switch, your wipers, all your power, I like your power traverse and that. You also have your spoke discharges as well. On my side, I've got the arm and arm switch, power traverse and BGTI switch, which turns on all your sights. So, this is my thermal imaging, you've got yours here. Now, as the gunner, your job is to fire the gun. The commander's bad, like he's got to load this retro thing. You've got a race use rack down here. Talk us through the joys of the run 30mm counter. It's a gluing bit of kit, does the job. I don't know how well it works against actual armour vehicles, because we've fired against normal targets on the range. It holds six rounds in total with multiple different shells that can be loaded. So, you'll put three in, then you have to wind it over to load it, then you have to put another three in. So, at the bottom of my feet as well, you have a little button that you press down. Once the arm and arm switch is engaged, you have to press down on that, whatever you're looking at. On your MBS mark, it'll give you the range to that target. Then, on the left of the riding, who is where the chingling gets mounted. So, you just put the barrel through here. The marks in there is a little slot. There's a house of mario for this. Then, on top, here is where you put the spare barrel. That's when you have to change it after it. No, the ching gun has a pretty awesome firing rate. What for you as a gunner of the best bits of the job? The best bits of job is actually going down range, as we are now, because the thrill that you get from it and the bounding, like the ACT that we do, there's three stations that you have to bound between, and the emergency shoot between the third and second obex cube. What's the most difficult part of your job as a gunner? So, the hardest part about being a gunner is probably having to maintain it, like, every time you have to strip and clean the third email, you have to take the top cover off, which is usually a team on left, and obviously, in close to base it, we are here. It's quite difficult to get it out, pass it up, explore it back on. And you have everything to do with it, quite heavy as well. So, grab a beat. A little pull through. In a few months of time, you've been on operations, you've been real. We're all views about that. So, I'm excited to go away, especially as a gunner. I believe going away as a gunner is a lot better than going away as a driver. Obviously, on exercise, it's not because the driver is warm and you're freezing and it's all right. But I'm excited to go, especially for the whole regiment. It'll be good for us. From a shop to drill square, halls of study to operational theatre. With 13,000 apprentices honing the skills of a new trade at any one time, the Army Apprenticeship Program is firmly embedded in the military DNA. Not just the training and specialisation opportunities that it offers, but the wider developmental aspects of the scheme, which help set the Army apprentice well on the way to the first rung up the promotion ladder. And in the process, hopefully motivating Himoha to consider the prospects of a longer-term career in the Army. For its many benefits and upsides, it is no surprise that the Army places such emphasis on apprenticeship training. We wish Gunners many Cook and Chiara Sullivan, Corporal Jonathan Cryler and Trooper Charlie Barfield, who so kindly helped in the making of this program, all good luck in the successful completion of their apprenticeships. And my thanks to King Stroup Horse, Whitley Neil for being such a patient, understanding a well-behaved subject for interview. And also to Charlie Kingston of the College of his partnership, made of Brecht Taylor Horse cuts through in Guards, Lieutenant Cassian Ferrari, the Roger Gunners Guards, and Adrian Payton for the help in making this program. For information on how to join the Army, search "Army Jobs" in your web browser. If you enjoyed this podcast, we'd like to learn more about the work of the Army Beloved Fund, the National Charity of the British Army, please visit armybelovedfund.org. And finally, we send our very best wishes to all ranks the Roar's Gunners Guards Battle Group, in their training and preparation practice deploying to Estonia or Operation Cabaret in the autumn. Next month, in a special podcast, we mark the 80th anniversary of the founding of the Army Beloved Fund. Do join us, and until then, from me, Harry Bucknell, thank you for listening, and farewell. ♪ There's something that a soldier was written by Noel Gay, performed by B. Courtney's band. Series editors with Jane Reben and Natasha Thiebel. We're co-reading by Michael Cignoni, this has been a GameCube production for the Army Beloved Fund.