Students were given an inspirational insight into life as a Royal Marine when the elite commando force visited Loughborough College recently – with females in the group particularly interested in discovering more as plans emerge for the Navy to recruit women for the first time.
After kicking off the day by putting the Public Services students through their paces with a fitness challenge the group were given a field training session offering them the chance to discover first hand the day to day experience of the Naval service troops.
“Our students helped the Royal Marines prepare food outdoors from ration packs they had brought with them and then everyone shared a meal of chicken curry, beef hot pot and dumplings, porridge, peanut butter on toast and something they called bug juice – a kind of powdered cordial.
“This time and the conversations over dinner enabled the students to get a real feel for what they might expect on field operations,” said Daniel Bellion, lecturer in Public Services at Loughborough College.
“There was a host of valuable nutritional advice designed to optimize health, fitness and endurance including tips on calorie break down, when to eat certain foods and how high-caffeine drinks would do them more harm than good.
“The Marines also shared many tales, including how they had saved up their ration bottles of Tabasco sauce through the year for a three month expedition to Norway, warming their cockles by putting it in all their food, even their porridge at breakfast.
“We talked about how the Royal Navy is now recruiting females, with the aim for numbers to reach 300 by 2018.
“The Marines were enthusiastic, saying that if females could get on and do everything they were expected to do then they were more than happy to welcome the move. The females students in our group were very inspired by this.
“The whole day was positive and the environment was so relaxed and friendly with male and female students excited at the prospect of joining the force.
“Three Loughborough College students have embarked on the application process and one is already further along, waiting to hear about the next recruitment stage at Lympstone this summer – and if he is successful at that, he’ll begin his 30-week training.”