Armed Forces careers for young people: pay, routes in and how to join

The Armed Forces are the largest employer in the country that will take you at 16, pay you a full salary from your first day, train you in a trade for free and house you while it happens. That combination does not exist anywhere else, which is exactly why it deserves a straight look rather than a recruitment poster.

These guides cover the British Army, the Royal Navy and Royal Marines, and the RAF. Pay figures are the rates that took effect on 1 April 2026 and are reviewed every April. Medical, fitness and nationality standards change too — always check the current rules with the service before you build a plan around them.

Start here

• Salary from day one · what comes off · the pensionWhat Armed Forces jobs pay
• Soldier, officer, apprenticeship, reservesEvery route in
• What they actually select onJoining with no experience
• The board, the questions, the fitness testSelection and interview
• Training, trade, deployment, downtimeA day in the life
• The form, the references, the medicalYour application
• The one career open to you straight from schoolJoining at 16 or 17

Who this is for

You do not need qualifications to start. Most entry roles ask for no GCSEs at all, some ask for two or three, and the officer route asks for A levels or equivalent. What every route asks for instead is that you are fit enough, well enough and old enough, and that you can pass a selection process designed to find out whether you will still be there in six months.

It suits people who would rather be taught than lectured, who want a trade and a wage at the same time, and who can live with somebody else deciding where they will be next year. It suits nobody who wants to stay near home and pick their own hours, and there is no point pretending otherwise.

The roles these guides cover

Nine roles on this board sit inside the Armed Forces, across all three services and both entry levels:

• Job roleSoldier
• Job roleArmy officer
• Job roleRoyal Navy rating
• Job roleRoyal Navy officer
• Job roleRoyal Marines commando
• Job roleRoyal Marines officer
• Job roleRAF aviator
• Job roleRAF officer
• Job roleRAF regiment gunner

Each of those pages says what the job actually involves day to day, what it pays and what the entry requirements are. These guides sit alongside them and answer the questions a role page cannot: how to choose, how selection works and what to do with the next two years if you are not old enough yet.

Start with what the job pays if you are weighing it against a civilian offer, or every route in if you have already decided and want to know how to get there. If you are 16 or 17, joining at 16 or 17 is the one to read first — the rules are different for you, and mostly in your favour. Or browse all 737 job roles explained.

Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0