Reserve Forces

All three Services promote specialist Reserve roles through their respective recruitment websites, multi-channel engagement, social media campaigns and unit attraction activities. In addition, all roles are advertised on the Service for Experienced, Re-joiner and Volunteer Engagements (SERVE) website for opportunities within Defence.

Publicity and recruitment activity will depend on the specific skills being sought. Some Reserve personnel, such as pilots and meteorologists, may be recruited directly during Service Leaver events for the skills they acquired during Regular service. Direct recruitment of specialist Reservists in areas such as medicine and healthcare may occur directly using specialist recruiters and we have also recently developed a route to Service for civilians with catering skills. Earlier this year, the first ab initio Reservist entered the Engineering specialism, which until recently was only open to ex-Regular personnel. We will increasingly look to publicise specialist Reservist roles for lateral entry as new routes open and will adapt to employ civilians with other specialist skills as demand requires.