So rather than those "shops" where you went to join up and become a man. Recruitment has been outsourced to Capita and from application to starting basic training can take as long as 321 days. Its not surprising that up to 48% of applicants are dropping out before the end of this process. Whilst there should be time to think about what you are letting yourself in for the realities for some of the older applicants are that in that time they may have found an alternative live vocation. Another point is traditionally a large proportion of services recruits come from Mickland and in that case we need to be fast responding as they often make high quality service men/women/trannies.don't knows. Time for Baxter Basics .. recruitment shops run by soldiers, sailors and RAF with recruitment run directly by the Army/Navy/RAF .. perhaps we also need to do something similar for the emergency services with joint shops that recruit NHS/Fire and Police directly.