Future Soldier Preparatory Course to become permanent
The Army stood up the Future Soldier Preparatory Course. It’s designed as a pre-basic training program to help recruits to get within academic and weight standards needed to start basic training. These Soldiers receive up to 90 days to reach the standards needed to ship to basic training. The graduation rate for this program is 95%.
From Fox News:
“Our insistence on not lowering the standard to enter basic training means that we have to be ready to remove obstacles for those that want to serve,” Brig. Gen. Jason Kelly, commander of the Army Training Center and Fort Jackson, told Military.com. “So, this is a program of record. Next month, that will be true. We’re moving away from pilot.”
The program, which was launched in August 2022, allows recruits who do not meet the Army’s weight or academic performance standards to enlist into the course, where they receive up to 90 days to reach compliance with Army standards and ship off to basic training. So far, 10,260 solider have moved on from one of the courses and entered basic training, according to data provided to Military.com, a 95% graduation rate.
The success of the program comes at a vital time for the Army, which has battled its worst recruiting crisis in decades over the last few years. In fiscal year 2022, the Army was 15,000 recruits short of hitting its 60,000 goal and is expected to come up short again this year.
One issue the service is facing is a shrinking pool of qualified candidates to recruit, with youth obesity numbers steadily rising over last few decades at the same time academic scores have slipped.
The Future Soldier Preparatory Course provided two separate tracks, one for recruits who do not meet the Army’s weight standards and one for applicants who have struggled to pass the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB) test. The Army also began allowing applicants to go through both courses after initially only allowing recruits to go through one.
Army leaders say the courses have been a resounding success, with soldiers boosting their ASVAB scores by 19 points on average during the academic track and shedding an average of 1.5% of body fat each week during that course.
Fox News provides the balance of the story here.
