Salary – Depending on whether you would like to join the army as an undergraduate and get sponsored through university the salaries are as follows,
As the table shows, the salaries offered for Officers in the army are very welcoming. As well as being paid highly, there are lots of other benefits to take advantage of like training, adventure training in England and Overseas, skills acquisition and a huge variety of different sports to get involved in. As an officer the standard of living is very high. The army subsidises most things, so your cost of living is lower. Your food is there breakfast, noon and night. And you pay a small sum of just over three pounds a day for it, unless you are on holiday or on tour when you don’t pay. Also your accommodation money is paid back to you when on tour, abroad or on holiday.
Holidays – You are given twenty days leave per year, not including bank holidays and grant leave you can get. Although depending if you are on a tour of duty or if your regiment needs you, you may not always be granted leave.
Benefits – Benefits you can get from the army are extensive. From adventure training all around the world, which is subsidised or even free depending on what and where it is, sport where you can play anywhere in the world which is also paid for, the training is second to none, higher learning at lower rates or education learning grants through the army to extend what qualifications you have.
Every Army camp has a gym which is open all day to use whenever you have time to go.
Medical and Dental care which has some of the best doctors and nurses in the world is also free no matter where you are. No matter what you are looking to do, there is always something in the army you can find to take advantage of.
Retirement Age – The retirement age is sixty, where you will also be able to get your pension. The amount varies on time served in the army.
Pension Details - After 2 years service, you are eligible for a preserved pension, which you can apply for when you reach 60. After 12 years service, preserved pension and cash grant. After 22 years service, immediate pension, resettlement grant and generous gratuity.
Sick Pay – When you are on the sick in the army, whether it be confined to barrack room, or at your home address you will be fully paid. Soldiers get paid twenty four hours every day, seven days a week.
Maternity Leave – If you happen to fall pregnant in the army you will be entitled to maternity leave and other benefits, the same applies for paternity leave.
Minimum Length of Service - The minimum commitment depends on your age. For those enlisting under the age of eighteen, they enlist to serve in the Army till the day before their twenty second birthday. They have the option of leaving the Army at any time after serving twenty eight days and before completing six months. The application to be discharged must be made in writing. For those over the age of eighteen the commitment is for four years and three months. The option to leave is shorter being after serving twenty eight days and before completing three months. They also have to apply in writing for discharge.
Postings – The army has postings all over the world. They are currently serving in fifty six different countries, so expect to go to one of them at least. The main regiments are in England, Scotland, Northern Ireland or Germany and Cyprus. However a tour could take you any where on the globe.
Shift Patters – The Army does not necessarily have shift patterns but if you are on duty for whatever reasons you will be working unsociable hours.
Contracted Hours – In the army you’re contracted to twenty four hours a day, seven days a week, and three hundred and fifty two days a year. You get paid for that time and your time is the army’s time.
Access to Training and Education – Most camps in the army have learning centre’s where you can find information on further education or higher learning. You can go to university, study for national vocational qualifications what ever you want really. And you can be given grants to study the course you are looking into. The army is a training environment and you never stop learning.
The terms and conditions for an operational police constable are,
Salary – When you join the police force you will under go training, after your training and after your two year probation your pay will increase, as it will do when you get promoted.
Holidays - All ranks are entitled to periods of annual leave on full pay. In your first five years of service, including your probationary period, you will receive 22 days annual leave per year, which will increase the longer you are in service.
Part-time officers are entitled to the same number of days annual leave as full-time officers with the same amount of service, but the time credited will be on a pro rata basis.
Benefits – Your uniform and equipment are given to you by the police force so you do not need to buy it yourself. When you leave the force you will have to hand in back in however.
On appointment, a constable becomes a member of the Police Federation. Police officers may not join a Trade Union.
The police force offers a wide range of advice about health care etc once you have joined.
Some forces offer allowances on top of the normal gross salary.
Retirement Age - Constables and sergeants normally retire after 30 years service, or on reaching the age of 55. The chief officer has discretion to extend the compulsory retirement age by up to five years. The compulsory retirement age differs for higher ranks. Officers may also retire with immediate pension if they have over 25 years of service and are above the age of 50.
Pension – The police force has a pension scheme which offers generous benefits, with the option of transferring previous pensions to their scheme. National Insurance contributions are paid lower than the normal rate also.
Sick Pay – The police force offer full pay during the first six months of any absence due to sickness or injury with entitlement to half pay for a further six months.
Maternity Leave - Women officers are entitled to maternity leave. This can be for the whole or part of the period between six months before and nine months after the expected date of birth.
Women officers are entitled to three months paid maternity leave, if they have served continuously for a year or more by the start of the 11th week before the expected birth date and are still pregnant or have given birth 15 weeks before the expected birth date.
All officers have the right to return to work following maternity leave. The police service is committed to enabling and supporting individuals who request work on a reduced hours basis, either part-time or job sharing. The opportunity to return to part-time or job share work may also be available therefore.
Officers are entitled to 2 weeks maternity support leave, the first of which will be on full pay, if they are the child’s father or the partner, or the nominated carer of an expectant mother at the time of birth. Officers who have 26 weeks continuous service at the 14th week before the expected week of confinement will be entitled to be paid for the second week at statutory paternity pay rate.
Police officers who have completed their probationary period may apply for a career break up to a maximum of five years to enable them to carry out, for example, caring responsibilities.
Minimum Length of Service – There is no minimum length of service although you do have to give one month’s resignation.
Postings – Constables have to work where in the area where the force they have joined is. No preferential treatment is given to anyone so they can be closer to home.
Shift Patterns and Hours - The normal working week is 40 hours on a shift basis. Shift patterns vary between forces. All ranks below superintendent are entitled to two rest days a week and compensation if required to work over those two days. They are also entitled to leave or compensation in lieu of public holidays.
The police force also allows part time working.
As a general rule, the same terms and conditions should apply to part-time officers as they apply to full-time officers, where appropriate on a pro rata basis.
You can apply to join the police service as a part-time officer but whilst on probation you must work an average of at least 24 hours a week (1,248 hours a year). Initial training must be completed on a full-time basis. Officers working part-time will not be exempt from working shifts – including night duties.
The annual salary of a part-time (or job sharing) probationer, constable or sergeant is that of a full-time officer calculated on a pro rata basis.
Access To Training and Further Education – The Police Force offers information once you have joined on training and further education. You can do open university courses whilst you are in the police force as long as you have the time to do them.
Task 3 - Identify an alternative employment opportunity within the same field on a part time basis and outline the entry requirements. Identify any differentiation between management and operational employment opportunities.
When you become a part time police constable the exact same entry requirements apply compared to full time.
- There are no age limits, but you have to be over eighteen and a half years old.
- There is no height restriction
- There are no formal educational requirements.
- You must be a British citizen an EC/EEA national or a Commonwealth citizen or foreign national with no restrictions on your stay in the United Kingdom. Foreign nationals who have lived abroad may have to wait a while for their security clearance.
- You do not have to have a driving licence and you do not have to be able to swim.
- You will have to pass a medical and eyesight test.
- You must not have any convictions which may make you ineligible for a job in the police force. These include Murder, Manslaughter, and Death by reckless driving, Rape, Kidnapping, Firearms offences, hostage taking, hijacking or torture.
- Applicants will have checks carried out to check their financial status. These are done because police officers have access to privileged informational which may make them vulnerable to corruption.
- Applicants must not have any offensive tattoos.
- You may be rejected for having outside business interests.
If you want to be a part time Officer in the British Army you would have to join the Territorial Army.
To train as a TA Officer you should have been a citizen of the UK, a Commonwealth country or the Republic of Ireland since birth.
- You should have been living in the UK for at least five years.
- The British Army would like you to be between seventeen and a half and twenty eight years old in order to complete the commissioning course before the age of thirty.
- You must have no lower than three GCSE’s at grades A-C, as well as the ability to pursue tertiary or higher education.
Differences between the managerial careers I have chosen to the operational career when it comes to employment opportunities are that if you are already in a managerial job, you can or there is the option to go up the ladder quicker and become a higher rank. Where as with the operational job you will have to work maybe twenty years before you become commissioned and get such a rank where you will manage a large amount of people and different jobs.
The employment opportunities really do only differ depending on how successful you were in your job. If you have gained rank and been promoted a lot of times you will know how to manage a bigger work force. You will be highly trained which makes it all the better for other jobs. If you have been promoted several times it means that you are a highly motivated person which is also good.
Evaluation
I have researched two different jobs in the public services and put together the terms and conditions for each.
I chose two different jobs i.e. the police force and the British army to show the difference between two different services.
The differences between pay, entitlement, benefits, and pensions I have all researched and put together in this assignment.
I then looked at those jobs on a part time basis and looked at the entry requirements. They are quite similar especially for nationality. However with the police you can’t have a criminal record or at least a major one.
References
Websites
Books
Territorial Army recruitment booklet from the Armed Forces Recruitment Office.