Exercise Shamrock Challenge 2012

Exercise Shamrock Challenge, the Territorial Army’s fast track training and entry scheme, will be taking place at Ballykinler Training Camp in August this year. It has proved so popular that for the first time, places are having to be ‘rationed’.

The annual scheme gives new recruits the opportunity to tackle the grueling TA induction training in one very packed month, as opposed to the usual bite size chunks on evenings and weekends at their local TA Centre, which can take up to 2 years to fully complete.

They rise at the crack of dawn for a day packed with physical challenges, a ration pack lunch followed by an afternoon hike, PT sessions and weapons training followed by an evening of mentally draining classroom lectures.

Regimental Sergeant Major Jimmy Johnston at the 38 (Irish) Brigade Regional Training Centre at Ballykinler is involved in training for both the Regular and Territorial Army. He commented, “A huge amount of training is compressed into a few short weeks for Exercise Shamrock Challenge, but we take no shortcuts. The men and women who step off the parade on the final day have to be fully prepared to join their TA units around the province and ready for the real challenges which lie ahead.”

A now Territorial who completed Shamrock Challenge in 2008 said it was a life-changing experience. He added, “When you march off that parade ground you feel really good about yourself. It’s a great high, for you know you have really achieved something worthwhile.”

For further information about Exercise Shamrock Challenge and about full and part time career opportunities with the Army, visit www.armyjobs.mod.uk/ni/