Military training to be more attractive

The SVK Government approved the Voluntary Military Training Amendment Act, thereby making the VMT project more attractive. According to the new arrangements, the financial reward for voluntary soldiers will be increased by approx. €200, the training period will be shortened from 12 to 11 weeks, and successful VMT graduates will have easier access to join the Slovak Armed Forces, Police Corps, and Firefighting and Rescue Services. These changes follow from the pilot project's analysis report, which also incorporates the assessment feedback from the perspective of the first successful VMT graduates. The Amendment Act is still to be approved by the SVK Parliament. The MOD seeks to enhance the quality of the project and train its next group of voluntary soldiers under already improved conditions, adding that the Training and Mobilisation Replenishment Martin is fully prepared for this purpose. The training of additional voluntary soldiers will be effected as soon as the Amendment Act enters into force, with the estimated effective date of 1 July 2017. The MOD wants to train up to 150 voluntary soldiers annually.