The British army is becoming increasingly desperate for recruits. The new targets are poorly educated teenagers and school children.

An article in last weeks New Statesman[1] told how children as young as 14 are being lured into the military through school army day trips and marketing schemes.

On a cold winters day a group of school children, aged between 14 and 16, are stood at Fulwood Barracks in Preston. These kids are from an underachieving comprehensive in a disadvantaged part of town. And many are viewed as unruly by the teachers.

Warrant Officer Nick Froehling soon has the children running obstacle courses and basic drills. Hours later the children have completed a one-day Army Personal Development course. They receive a certificate with recruitment office numbers. A DVD, brochures and a trendy magazine called Camouflage are also handed over.

Schemes like this have caused outrage by Plaid Cymru, who had asked to ban army targeting programmes (which were rejected). Focus is moving from the school leaver to the school child.

Maybe recruitment schemes aiming at underachieving youths provide more promising futures. Unemployment in Wales rose to 5 percent in 2006, from 4.3 percent in 2005 [2].

Here is the dilemma. At what age is it acceptable to offer an insight to a military career? The head of the service’s recruitment strategy, Colonel David Allfrey says “We don’t do primary schools”[3]. Particular teens find themselves in a dubious situation where they do not suit the academic system. And the military could present opportunities to make a lifelong career.

Military recruitment could be the answer to Wales’ growing unemployment problem. But how young do you aim?