Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many new Army recruits who joined the Army since January 2017 held a degree level qualification on entry.

The tables below show the number new recruits between 1 January and 31 August 2017 with a recorded degree level qualification or A levels. Candidates with A levels and degree level qualifications may show in both tables.

Education qualifications are not captured unless they are required as a Mandatory Academic Qualification for the role or declared by the candidate as additional information. The actual number of individuals holding qualifications will therefore be higher.

Notes

New recruits have been defined as candidates who arrived at Phase 1 Training or in the case of Reserve Officers those who passed Army Officer Selection Board Main Board.

Reserves figures are for Group A Reserves. These are Reserves who are recruited through the National Recruiting Centre and are available for employment on specific tasks at home and overseas.

These questions have been answered using information held in recruiting data. They are single service estimates and are not official statistics. Numbers have been rounded to the nearest 10. Numbers ending in five have been rounded to the nearest multiple of 20 to prevent systematic bias.