Navy to hire recruits who cannot swim amid staffing shortage

ROYAL NAVY recruits will no longer need to be able to prove they can swim in order to join, it has emerged.

Anyone seeking to join the Navy will not have to pass a 30-minute swim test prior to signing up, in an attempt to boost and speed up recruitment.

A Royal Navy spokesman insisted that standards were not being lowered, as all recruits would have to pass a swim test during their training, and that the level of ability needed had not changed.

A source told Sky News that the move was a “sign of true desperation” in the middle of a recruitment crisis for the Armed Forces. If a recruit is not able to pass the Royal Navy Swim Test after joining, they will remain in Phase 1 basic training while they receive lessons.

For anyone who fails the test, the Navy pays for 20 hours of lessons, which recruits would do in their own time around their training.

The anonymous source told Sky, which first reported the change: “In a sign of true desperation to increase recruitment numbers, being able to swim will no longer be an entry requirement to join the Royal Navy.”

They added: “Are they really thinking about what’s best for the recruit? Recruits who can’t swim will need additional training and therefore their ‘working days’ in training will be longer. Surely avoiding this by learning to swim before joining is the best for everyone – including the taxpayer?”

In the 12 months to March last year, Ministry of Defence figures showed that the Navy performed the worst out of the three Armed Forces for recruitment. Intake dropped by 22.1 per cent compared with the previous year, putting it on par with the Royal Marines but worse than the RAF and the Navy.

A Royal Navy spokesman said: “All Royal Navy and Royal Marine candidates are required to successfully pass the swim test prior to [being] able to pass out of Phase 1 training and [the] level of swimming ability required has not changed.”