Reserve personnel have always been a valued asset and an integral part of the New Zealand Defence Force.
Territorial Force personnel, part time naval reservists, and RNZAF active reservists help the Defence Force meet its operational commitments at home and internationally. The approximately 2500 Territorial Force and Navy and Air Force reserves are made up of New Zealanders from a range of professions, and include accountants, lawyers, students and politicians.
As volunteers they are expected to maintain a good standard of fitness and must commit a minimum of 20 days each year to training, including night parades, weekend exercises, longer exercises and promotion courses.
Historically Territorial Force personnel have comprised around 10 per cent of deployed troops to Timor-Leste, but they currently make up about three quarters of NZDF personnel deployed to the Regional Assistance Mission to the Solomon Islands. Territorial soldiers and Officers have also been active on peacekeeping missions to Lebanon, Sinai, Bosnia, Sierra Leone, Bougainville, Afghanistan, and Iraq.
Reservists in each of the services bring to their tasks valuable skills they gain in their civilian lives. As part time soldiers they have the best of both worlds: a normal civilian life while also experiencing the challenges of military life.
Territorial Force Qualifications Recognised
Territorial Force soldiers now have their New Zealand Army training recognised with formal industry qualifications by the New Zealand Qualifications Authority.
Working with ‘Learning State’, the Army has aligned soldier training with management and business qualifications. The NZQA-accredited qualifications are gained through a combination of promotion courses and unit-based training and can be attained by both junior and senior soldiers.
“The initiative means that soldiers and their employers benefit from nationally recognised civilian qualifications.” says Major Ian Bateman from the Army’s Industry Training and Vocational Qualifications unit, ArmyQual.
Full-time soldiers who have completed their Junior Non -Commissioned Officer (JNCO) training received National Certificates in First Line Management and Adult Education and Training in a ceremony at Linton Camp on Thursday 31 July.
Both qualifications are made up of a series of unit standards that the soldier achieves through recognised prior learning and recognition of current competence for training, skills, and experience gained through the workplace and on courses.
As soldiers progress through their careers and complete other courses, or work as instructors, they will build on these skills to gain further qualifications.
“Formalising aspects of Army training with NZQA standards creates a win-win-win situation for the soldier, employer and the NZ Army”
- Major Bateman
Reserve Forces
Territorial Forces Employer Support Council (TFESC)
The Territorial Forces Employer Support Council was set up in 2006 to promote service in the Territorial Forces and to facilitate good relations between part time Reserve personnel and their civilian employers.
Although legislation already provided for reserve forces to train without risking loss of employment, the Territorial Forces Employer Support Council interacts with employers and employer groups about any concerns they have as employers of Reserve personnel - such as letting staff deploy during busy periods of work. The council also communicates to employers the importance of Reserve Forces for the generation of New Zealand’s strategic military capability and the advantages of having employees train in the military.
The TFESC recently began an awards programme in recognition of employers who are particularly supportive of their TF employees. This year they named law firm Minter Ellison Rudd Watts as 2008 Employer of the Year in acknowledgment of their support of solicitor and Territorial Nick Jones. Nick says he was grateful about the way Minter Ellison viewed his recent deployment to the Solomon Islands as a member of the Territorial Forces:
“My employer saw my deployment as being a part of my development as a lawyer and as a person. They really wanted to see me get out there and learn leadership in the ‘school of hard knocks’ environment”.
Royal New Zealand Naval Volunteer Reserve
Naval Reserves have existed in New Zealand since 1860, when local citizens volunteered to train as part time sailors to help regular naval forces defend New Zealand and her interests. Reservists are typically people with regular jobs (although some are tertiary students or full-time parents) who get paid for the spare time they spend as a member of the Naval Reserve. They work along side Regular Force personnel in the Navy’s ships and support the Navy’s contribution to operational missions overseas. There are currently around 260 people in the Naval Reserve. Life in the Naval Reserve is busy, challenging and never boring. In addition to their full-time civilian occupations, Naval reservists are also high achievers in their roles as ‘part time sailors’. There are four main Naval Reserve units located in Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin and a sub unit in the port of Tauranga.
RNZAF Active Reserve (AR-F)
The RNZAF currently has a Territorial Air Force comprising predominantly band members and Air Traffic Controllers. In a new initiative, Chief of Air Force, Air Vice-Marshal Graham Lintott has recently announced the implementation of the RNZAF Active Reserve (AR-F). AVM Lintott says having a workable Reserve capacity will provide Units with another option to overcome any personnel shortfall in meeting their annual outputs. “It is my intent that the AR-F personnel will become an integral part of our team as we work towards being an Air Force that is the best in all that we do”, he says.
Territorial Force Women
“Becoming part of the Territorial Force has provided me with excitement and direction, and prompted me to push the boundaries of what I believed were my physical limits,” says Private Tracy Anderson.
“I was at a point in my life where I had gone as far as I could with work and study. My next steps were to either work overseas or begin a PhD. Both seemed unappealing at that point in my life. My life has been enriched by the quality of the people I have met, the challenges that have been put before me, and what I have been able to achieve. I have an understanding of what team work is now, which I didn’t have previously and would never have had if I had not joined the TF. It‘s had a positive flow-on in my personal and working life.”
In civilian life Tracy Anderson is a non-sworn member of the NZ Police in Wellington, and works on initiatives involving stopping family violence. She became firm friends with medic Sarah Blundell as they dug in together on a recent exercise.