UK to Offer Military Gap Year for Youth to Boost Recruitment and Skills

📌Key Points

• •The UK MoD will launch a paid military "gap year" scheme for under-25s starting in Spring 2026.
• •The program aims to boost recruitment, address retention issues, and offer transferable life skills without a long-term commitment.
• •Initial intake will be 150 recruits, with plans to expand to over 1,000 annually; participants will not be deployed on active operations.
• •Scheme durations vary by branch: Army (two years), Navy (one year), RAF (options being explored).
• •The initiative is framed as a "whole of society" approach to defence amid rising tensions with Russia.
• •The opposition criticizes the scheme's small initial scale as insufficient for national defence readiness.