Soldier to Officer: The Toughest Route to a Commission

A few weeks ago I spoke to somebody who wanted to become a British Army officer. He was only 18, and felt that he wasn't quite ready for AOSB. However, he didn't want to wait for another two years before starting his career, and he had no interest in going to university. With this in mind, he'd gone to his local careers office and come away with the impression that joining as a soldier before applying to become an officer in a few years was the best thing to do.

He'd been told that it was a proven route. There was even a 12-week course called the Potential Officer Development Course that helps serving soldiers prepare for Main Board. I can confirm this course exists, because I instructed on it for a brief period. In his mind, the decision had been taken. Two years as a soldier, before applying to become an officer with military experience under his belt.

But I disagreed. I told him something very simple. If you want to be a soldier, apply to be a soldier. If you want to be an officer, apply to be an officer. But do not apply to be a soldier because it looks like a proven route to the officer role. It is not. The route exists, but it is far from straightforward.

In this guide I will explain why. And I will tell you why joining as a soldier is a bad idea if you want to become an officer. Before going any further, I want to make one final thing clear. I am not saying you shouldn't join as a soldier. It's an amazing career and it offers many fantastic roles. For many, it is a better path than the officer role, full stop.

But I am writing for one person and one person only. An individual who knows they want to be an officer, but who is deciding whether to join as a soldier first. If that is you, please read on.

The Soldier Route

Let me introduce you to Callum. He's 18 years old and has just joined the Rifles as a rifleman. He plans to apply to AOSB in two years, once he turns 20. Callum, you've probably worked out, is fictional. But there are many like him. Callum applies on his eighteenth birthday. Four months pass before he has a start date. He has not spent a day in uniform, and the plan is already behind.

The Combat Infantry Course at Catterick runs for 26 weeks. He passes out as a rifleman just short of nineteen. Eighteen months in the battalion, he tells himself, then Westbury. Nobody in the battalion cares about his plan. Why would they? He is the newest man in the block, and there is work to do. Ranges. Guard. Salisbury Plain. He is good at his job, and his section commander rates him.

A year in, he raises it with his platoon commander. The conversation goes well. The platoon commander is supportive and offers to help him prepare. But the answer is not yet. He will not recommend a rifleman with a year in the battalion. Corporal Smith has been asking for three years. Prove yourself first, he says.

Callum walks away deflated. He had assumed the recommendation was a formality. It is not. No soldier attends AOSB without his commanding officer confirming that he is ready, and getting this approval is easier said than done.

He turns 20. This was the month he planned to apply. Instead the battalion is about to deploy to Estonia. Six months on NATO's eastern flank. Pre-deployment training swallows the winter, and nobody has any interest in an officer application in the middle of it. The application can wait, his platoon sergeant says. The deployment cannot.

The tour is the making of him, and he's finally demonstrated his potential. But his platoon commander has moved on. It could be back to square one, but luckily his new platoon commander has heard good things and is willing to back Callum fully. Many wouldn't be. By now Callum has been asking for over a year.

The recommendation begins its climb. Platoon commander to company commander. Company commander to commanding officer. An interview at each level and a written assessment at each level. It takes three months, which is surprisingly quick. Then things move. Aged 21, he gets a Cat 1.

Then he waits again. As a serving soldier he is loaded onto the Potential Officer Development Course. It is a good course. But it runs three times a year, and the next intake is four months out. Twelve weeks, then Main Board a few weeks after it ends. He finally passes at 22.

The September intake is full by the time his result lands, so he is loaded onto January. He goes back to the battalion and marks time. He starts the commissioning course more than five years after he applied to the Rifles. It runs for 44 weeks. He passes out as a second lieutenant at 24. Six years have passed since his eighteenth birthday.

Remember the plan. Two years, then apply. And nothing went wrong. He passed every stage at the first attempt. No failed Briefing, which could have added a year. He had a supportive chain of command and a strong tour. This is the route working well. Most versions run slowly, if at all.

The Pitfalls

Callum's story is the route working as well as it can. For every Callum, there are plenty of others who joined with exactly the same plan, with just as much potential, and who never got there. Not because they weren't good enough, but because of factors outside their control. Here are a few more fictional, but all too real, examples:

• Injury. Aimee joined the Royal Artillery with the same two-year plan. Eighteen months in, she ruptured a knee ligament on a fitness test. Surgery, rehab, a medical downgrade. By the time she was fit for Briefing, the appetite had gone.
• Manning. Danny was one of the best operators in 16 Signal Regiment. That was the problem. The squadron was undermanned, and his troop staffy blocked the application every time. Not maliciously. He simply couldn't afford to lose him.
• The CO won't sign off. Josh, a guardsman in the Scots Guards, had his company commander's backing, but the recommendation died at battalion headquarters. He was never told why. Soldiers in this position rarely are.
• Your backer leaves. Ryan, a sapper in 22 Engineer Regiment, spent a year earning his troop commander's support. Then she was posted. Her replacement told him to prove himself first. The clock reset to zero.
• Demotivation. Connor joined the Yorkshire Regiment sharp and impatient. Two years of guard and stag wore him down. He stopped working hard, and once he did, nobody was willing to work for him.
• Back of the queue. Megan, a private in the Royal Logistic Corps, applied a month after another soldier in her squadron was loaded onto the Potential Officer Development Course. The next spots were already informally promised. She joined a queue she didn't know existed.

None of them did anything wrong. But the route doesn't just test whether you're good enough. It tests whether the system, the timing and the people above you all line up. Often, they don't.

Direct Entry

Before we get to the numbers, let's remind ourselves of the alternative. The route Callum could have taken.

At eighteen, he takes a part-time job and spends six months working on his fitness and current affairs knowledge. Then he goes travelling for six months, and submits his application while he's still abroad. He has just turned nineteen when the process begins in earnest. It still takes a while. An application typically takes a year to eighteen months, but assuming he passes he should arrive at Sandhurst twenty or twenty-one, and commissions a year later.

If he fails Main Board, he books another attempt and goes back at twenty-two. Still two years ahead of Callum the rifleman if everything goes to plan. And he doesn't need to persuade a single person to let him try. No recommendation to earn, no queue, and no stars waiting to align before he's allowed to go to Main Board.

One more thing. The year of work and travel wasn't dead time. He arrives at Westbury with money he earned, a bit of the world behind him and eighteen months of growing up done. He is a better candidate at nineteen than he ever was at eighteen and, unlike Callum, he never had to prioritise another job over his preparation.

The Numbers

Perhaps you read Callum's path and thought it looked like the best path. But the key point is that his story is incredibly unlikely. Here are the numbers that put just how unlikely it is into context.

• Completes Phase 1 and Phase 2 uninjured

  Direct Entry: Does not apply

  Soldier Entry: 95%

• Receives Chain of Command Approval

  Direct Entry: Not required

  Soldier Entry: 25%

• Category 1 at Briefing

  Direct Entry: 46%

  Soldier Entry: 46%

• Passes Main Board

  Direct Entry: 57%

  Soldier Entry: 57%

• Gets a second attempt if Main Board goes badly

  Direct Entry: Yes

  Soldier Entry: Unlikely, unit-dependent

• Reaches Sandhurst

  Direct Entry: 26%, or 37% using the second attempt

  Soldier Entry: About 6%

Direct entry percentages are based on British Army figures released under Freedom of Information, 2024. The Phase 1 and Phase 2 figure and the recommendation figure are my own estimates, drawn from preparing applicants and from instructing on the Potential Officer Development Course.

Callum the rifleman has a 6% chance of reaching Sandhurst. One in sixteen. And remember what that number represents. It is not the route going badly. It is the route going perfectly. A supportive chain of command, a strong tour, every stage passed at the first attempt. Even then he is 23 before he walks through the gates at Sandhurst, and 24 before he puts on a second lieutenant's rank slide. It represents the best possible scenario.

The eighteen-year-old who simply applies has roughly a one in three chance, and he is through those same gates at 20 or 21. It is also worth noting that the 26% and 37% figures don't even include those who get Cat 2 or Cat 3 and pass Main Board, of which there are many. So the real likelihood of success is even higher.

These are averages, and no individual is average. A strong candidate will beat the odds on either route. But look at what separates the two columns beyond the headline. Both of them face the same Briefing, and pass it once. Where they part company is Main Board. The civilian who falls short there goes back to Main Board, a year later, and Briefing is still passed. Nobody asks him to prove it twice. He books the date himself. Nothing is spent by failing. No recommendation burned, nobody senior watching to decide whether he deserves another go.

That is the real difference. Callum's route depends on the system, the timing and the people above him all lining up. The direct route depends on one person, with no outside influence.

The Reserves: The Best of Both Worlds

It is possible to commission from the ranks. Plenty have done it and plenty will do it again. But it is far from the easiest route, and Callum's story is what it looks like when nothing goes wrong.

There is something more important here than the odds, though. Signing up to the British Army as a soldier is not like any other job. You are agreeing to go wherever you are sent, and to be the person others are relying on when you get there. That is not a decision to take half-heartedly.

If you want to experience British Army life before going through the AOSB process, I would recommend that you go through the Reserves. You can get many of the benefits of joining as a regular soldier (military exposure, a chance to mature, and real experience to draw on at interview) without losing control over your own future. Most of all, you can go through the direct entry route without needing the approval of your chain of command, and at every stage your fate remains entirely in your own hands.