Military recruiting to begin March 1

An experimental volunteer program for the military is set to be launched on March 1, offering 647 jobs for youths aged between 19 and 26, the Ministry of National Defense has announced on its Web site.

The new recruits will be the first volunteer soldiers since 1956, when the compulsory military service system was launched. The program marks the greatest change to that conscription system in four decades.

The experimental program will become the basis for the ministry to raise the ratio of volunteers at all levels -- troops, non-commissioned officers and officers. The objective is to create a military that is 60 percent volunteer and 40 percent conscript. The current ratio of volunteers to conscripts is around 1 to 3.

The starting salary for a volunteer will be NT$27,105 per month. The ministry says that is relatively good pay in comparison with equivalents in the civilian job market.

The pay will be raised twice during the three-year term that a volunteer has to serve.

The ministry announced the volunteer plan last September but the details and concrete steps of the program were not worked out until recently.

The ministry says application forms for the program will be available soon.

The ideal candidates will be young men between the ages of 19 and 23 who have not done their military service or those who have served their conscription term but are under the age of 26.

Volunteers must be senior high school graduates. It is expected that a considerable number of college graduates will apply, considering the current job market.

The three branches of the military each have one battalion that will accept volunteers. The army has a missile battalion, the navy has a marine infantry battalion and the air force has an aircraft-repair and maintenance group.

The missile battalion, which operates the Tien Kung-series air-defense-missile systems, is hoping to attract volunteers with college degrees in electronics, electrical engineering or engineering.

In an article posted on the defense ministry's Web site, Major Liu Tsao-wen (劉超文), deputy leader of the missile battalion, said that the volunteer program is the right thing for his battalion since it is in desperate need of soldiers who can serve longer terms.

"We now depend on conscripts as the main source of manpower. Conscripts just have to serve one year and 10 months. Before joining our unit, they will spend one month at boot camp and another four months in specialty training," Liu said in the article.

"Once into out unit, these soldiers will need some more time to learn and adjust to the environment. As they become mature in experience and skills, they are nearing the end of their service term," he said.

The volunteers are expected to help maintain the experience and skills the military needs since they have to serve for three years and can then choose to stay on for another one to three years.