Following the latest meeting of the Junior Leaders’ Field Gun (JLFG) Executive Committee, the Royal Navy UTC Outreach Team is delighted to announce that students from 11 UTCs have been selected to run in the 2018 JLFG Competition.
The UTCs are: AUEA, Derby Manufacturing UTC, Elutec, Greater Peterborough UTC, UTC Plymouth, UTC Reading, UTC@Harbourside, UTC Portsmouth, Scarborough UTC, South Devon UTC and South Wiltshire UTC. The committee was once again overwhelmed by the number of applications received which this year included one from a military academy in the United States. Thankfully UTCs will be well represented with nine teams in the competition which is being held at HMS Collingwood, Fareham, over the week of 1-6 July.
JLFG is a modified version of the Royal Navy and Royal Marines Charity Field Gun aimed at youths aged 16-24. The teams will again be running against trainees from the Royal Navy and Royal Air Force, as well as those from the National Sea Cadets, local colleges and an invitational team from the Missouri Military Academy.
During this year’s competition, Elutec were rewarded as the highest placed UTC overall and Plymouth walked away with the Trainer’s Trophy. Regardless of placement, all of the participants worked extremely hard during the week to put on an excellent show in front of an audience made up of family, friends and VIPs.
Warrant Officer Stuart Clayton, the Personal Development Instructor with the RN UTC Outreach Team said:
The amount of effort required by all to build a strong and cohesive team capable of running in the event should not be underestimated. We saw courage, determination and plenty of ‘can do’ attitude from the students during the course of the week, values which the RN takes great pride in within our serving personnel.
Ian Crews, Principal at South Devon UTC said:
JLFG is the single best exercise for improving individual leadership that our students could possibly have participated in; it was absolutely brilliant on so many levels!
The JLFG Executive Committee would also like to take the opportunity to thank the Baker Dearing Educational Trust for their continued support of the event as co-sponsors alongside Amey and the Royal Navy and Royal Marines Charity.
