12,000 Young People Join the Swiss Army

12,000 Young People Join the Swiss Army

Mon, Jan 15th 2024

Swiss Armed Forces: Embracing Diversity and Empowerment in Military Training

12,126 young men and women entered the Swiss Armed Forces’ recruit schools on Monday. A total of 2587 army cadres are also expected in the schools. The proportion of women across the board is 2.9 percent, according to the army.

A total of 11,871 men and 255 women joined the recruit schools (RS). Over the next 18 weeks, they will be trained by 2412 male and 175 female cadre. 48 Swiss nationals from abroad have traveled to Switzerland to complete their RS. 1472 members of the armed forces are serving under the “Durchdiener” model.

According to the army, RS training is geared towards defending against a military attack. To ensure that members of the armed forces understand the army as an overall system, there should be more joint exercises involving different branches of the armed forces.

The military training – for example for paramedics and for driving vehicles – is also useful in civilian life, according to the army. And some training courses, especially for non-commissioned officers, senior non-commissioned officers and officers, can be credited towards the ECTS credit point system.

Defense Minister Viola Amherd is keen to increase the proportion of women in the army. She has set herself the goal of having around ten percent women in the armed forces by 2030. The current figure is around one percent.

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