Belgium envisions a job opportunity for unemployed and uneducated youth: military service

The Armed Forces of European countries had problems recruiting the number of personnel they needed, especially in the 1990s and early years of this century mostly abolished compulsory military service. Belgium, one of the countries with the most problems in this regard try to fix it.

The Minister of Defense announced that next January the SUC (Collective Utility Service) will begin operating, a type of voluntary military service aimed at unemployed youth between the ages of 18 and 25both female and male. It is open to anyone, but in principle it is intended for people They have no higher education and they do not have a stable job.

SUC will be a service of one year in duration and the idea behind this new program is the youth explore the armed forces from within and at the end of the year even one party decides sign a long -term contract. Belgium calculates that in this situation (no higher education and no stable employment and between the ages of 18 and 25) it has approximately 300,000 people.

Defense Minister Ludivine Dedonder announced this in January and on Monday the Ministry of Defense explained it. the modalities of the new program. Authorities first wanted to clarify that it was not about the return of compulsory military service through the back door.

failures in the past

Belgium has already tried similar systems over a decade ago and it has not been successful. In 2007, the then Minister of Defense, André Flahaut, launched a similar program that sought the same thing, to encourage young people without higher education to recognize the Armed Forces from within to teach in them already Being in the military is a professional opportunity just like any other.

Flahaut’s plan died when his successor Pieter De Crem put it in a box and did not provide a way for it to begin.

De Crem had his own ideas and in 2010 he tried again with EVMI, a similar bet that was also unsuccessful.

In the first year, according to the newspaper ‘Le Soir’, it offered 155 places out of 679 registered and only 103 joined the Armed Forces. The following year there were 44. The plan stalled two years later when it was discovered that more than half of those who started this service had abandoned it before reaching the end of a year. The program exists on paper but already exists it does not cover even 5% of the areas it offers.

economically attractivethe

Dedonder believes he will succeed where others have not. Mainly because will be more economically attractive. You can go in and collect a small salary and at the same time continue to collect social assistance or unemployment. And the professional training part will be strengthened so that young people can see its usefulness beyond a possible professional career in the Armed Forces.

The new plan has other different features. It no longer seeks, like its predecessors, to recruit soldiers for Armed Forces operations. Rather, it is about what these young people are doing Army support missions that they do not need long training and in general nothing to do with handling weapons. The maximum duration is one year.

By the end of that year, you can access a position as a professional soldier how many standard exams are passed for joining the Army.

Until then they are not military. They will also have the opportunity to join civil work in the Ministry of Defense. The minister considers that the program can serve as social elevator so that young people without higher education or stable employment can access professional training and a stable contract with the Armed Forces.

Brussels, special for Clarín

ap