The British Army has set its sights on recruiting the necessary numbers to sustain the “fabric” of the army, as well as improve retention, as it begins the final stages of awarding a contract to outsource its recruitment.

This week the Financial Times reported that outsourcing firms Capita and Serco were in competition to land the contract to recruit up to 9,000 soldiers in year, covering everything from marketing to aspects of training.

In 2008, the MoD began a competition between a number of bidders to outsource recruitment. The final stage with bidders has started and the contract will be awarded before the end of this year with implementation fully operational by November next year.   

A British Army spokesperson confirmed to Recruiterthat Capita and Prospector Group, a consortium led by Serco, were the outsourcing firms in question.

The spokesperson told Recruiter: “The army is an organisation that predominantly promotes from within and there is always a need to take on high quality recruits, who will become the leaders of the future.

“It is essential that we maintain recruiting at a level that both sustains the fabric of the army into the future and supports current operations. The Recruiting Partnering Project is an initiative to both meet the numbers we need, reduce the fallout rate in training and improve retention. The contract will modernise army recruiting and deliver savings in excess of £250m over 10 years.”