Sgt Clint Sherratt, 34, currently serving in the Royal Signals and specialising as an Installation Technician, enlisted in 1997 and, to date, has served in locations including RAF Laarbruch, RAF Akrotiri and the Royal School of Signals. He has also been deployed to Bosnia, Kosovo, Ascension and Sierra Leone. When asked about his notable achievements while serving, he says, ‘After a bad spinal injury and associated surgery in 2003 I had pretty much written myself off physically, however I was able to get myself fit again and managed to climb Mount Whitney in America.’

Asked to tell us about civilian qualifications gained during his Service career, Clint goes on to say, ‘As, fairly early on in my career, I got an injury that will stay with me for life, on the advice of one of my seniors I got busy training my mind as I couldn’t train my body, so I have focused on building my portfolio of qualifications constantly.’ The list is already an impressive one (see box).

He continues, ‘I registered for the ELC scheme when I was serving in Cyprus. I knew that I did not have a direct use for the scheme at the time, but I could tell that this was too good an opportunity to miss. It seemed like I was being offered some free money to improve myself, for whenever I needed it. I can’t believe anyone fails to join. It would be like saying no thanks to a guaranteed winning lottery ticket!’ As a result of using ELC, he is currently studying for his Bachelor of Arts (Honours) Degree in Post Compulsory Education and Training with the University of Southampton. The course is, he says, ‘very well run, relevant to the environment in which I serve and is both thought-provoking but also able to be applied in a practical context. It also builds directly on the foundations provided by both in-Service CLM courses and courses I have studied previously. Even now, with a year to go, I am already thinking about continuing on to do my master’s, which without what is left of my ELC wouldn’t be something I could even contemplate.’

 

 

In terms of helping his military career, he says that his current course is, ‘in the short term, already benefiting me personally and improving my performance at work. I feel that I am now performing far better than I could ever have managed had I not done this course. This leads to direct benefits to all of my students, my Unit and my Corp, which hopefully will be reflected in my career progression from this point. In the long term, the thirst for knowledge and desire to improve others that this course has given me have inspired me to apply to transfer to the ETS at some point, to continue in educating the rest of the field Army.’ And, thinking in terms of any future civilian career, he says, ‘While I am now qualified to teach, this course has expanded on that to give me a greater understanding of the processes involved in the development of people, and this will have opened up a huge potential area of work for me to walk into in the future, when I finally do leave the Forces.’

In conclusion, he has some useful advice and encouragement for other Service people registering for or using ELC: ‘Think about what you want to achieve and then plan exactly how you are going to do it. There is a lot of support available to you while you are in the military, but people still will not do it for you and, without a plan, you’ll never get where you want to be. It’s a bit like going on a journey: you need to know your destination and the route you are going to take, otherwise you will drive around pointlessly until you run out of petrol. You may see some things you like along the way, but it is unlikely you will end up exactly where you want to go. My second piece of advice is, if you haven’t registered for the ELC yet, do it now, right now, stop reading this and DO IT NOW!’

 

 

 

 

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