Quote:
Originally Posted by johndallman
The recruitment process is very selective. Apparently there are around 25,000 applicants each year for 200-300 places. |
Quote:
Originally Posted by sir_pudding
Although some of them apparently join the Indian Gurkha regiments instead, I think. Even so, they are units with the lowest ratio of soldiers to applicants in the world and they start very specific training at a very young age. Gurkhas are kind of ridiculous.
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There is a larger context here though. Entry into a Gukha regiment if you are a young man in Nepal tends to end with a significantly better standard of living than other likely careers in Nepal open to them might offer. So a lot go for selection for pretty prosaic reason. There is also a higher than usual social cache involved as well. So recruitment application rates are high (especially when you consider the size of the population they draw from), than for say western armed forces. Of course all this means that selection can be all the more choosy, and applicants know what they are looking for even if the majority wouldn't meet the requirements and pass even if there wasn't such fierce competition.
Which is as you say why they start the specific selection process quite young (and I gather it actually starts informally even younger).