Army aiming for more territorials

Press, 6 August 1987, Page 5

Army aiming for more territorials

The Army is embarking on a big publicity drive in a bid to boost recruitment and retention in the Territorial Forces.

The main thrust of the drive is an “employer support scheme” aimed at civilian employers of parttime soldiers.

There will also be an advertising campaign, while individual T.F. units have been told to take a higher public profile. Brigadier Rick Menzies, the Territorial Force adviser to the Chief of General Staff, said that the problem was retention rather than recruiting.

In current economic conditions, employers had become reluctant to allow staff time off for their Army commitments, he said.

To counter that, a series of “employer sup-

port committees” were being set up in every main centre and most provincial centres.

The committees, made up mainly of businessmen, will have the job of explaining to employers the benefits of having parttime soldiers on their staff.

The Army says that part-time soldiers acquire personal qualities and a range of skills which may be of benefit to their civilian employers. While employers were legally required not to stand in the way of staff joining up, the Army says it did not want them to feel under duress.

Brigadier Menzies, a Banks Peninsula farmer, said that it would be six to 12 months before the scheme was fully under way.

Apart from Wanganui,

where an employer support committee was set up 18 months ago in a “tremendously successful” pilot scheme, most were still in the formative stage. The chairman of the Christchurch committee is a businessman, Mr Peter Yeoman, and the South Island co-ordinator of the scheme, is police Chief Inspector and Territorial Force Colonel Peter Coster.

Lieutenant Grant Smith, the recruiting and public relations officer for his Territorial Force unit, said that people were simply not aware of the role of the Territorials. He said that Territorial training had become more active and more realistic than in the past, with live ammunition now being used on exercises.