East Midlands University Officers’ Training Corps (EMUOTC) is a great example of a UOTC unit that uses Adventurous Training (AT) to underpin its Leadership and Resilience Training Programme.
Historically, The Ulysses Trust has supported many of the unit’s previous expeditions dating back to the mid-1990s when the Trust was originally set-up. It is estimated that during the past three decades we have helped between 800-900 Officer Cadets (OCdts) from EMUOTC to take part in challenging expeditions in the UK and overseas, capturing the essence of EMUOTC four pillars of support: military training, adventure training, sport and social.
Evidence of this continued AT success would be the case of OCdt Ollie Goldsack. During his four years at EMUOTC, Ollie attended the Easter Foundation package to gain qualifications in his junior year. In his second year he attended a summer mountaineering expedition in Norway then completed winter mountaineering in Scotland the following year before planning his own climbing expeditions to the Lake District and Austria in year 3 and 4. He is now in his second term of becoming an officer at Royal Military Academy Sandhurst and is still sharing his passion for AT with others.
“AT is the one activity that my OCdts must be exposed to. The skills developed during AT are applicable in nearly all aspects of military leadership and The Ulysses Trust is invaluable in its support.”
Lt Col R A Peters MBE | CO EMUOTC
At EMUOTC there is a clear correlation between participation in AT and going on to take up a leadership position in the unit’s command team or commissioning into the British Army. In the past year, EMUOTC has had 7 reserve and 12 regular commissioning course attendees. Of these alumni, 17 had participated in AT, of which 8 were AT planners themselves.
This demonstrates that EMUOTC takes AT seriously and the impact on the unit is significant. Expeditions are recognised as being a significant contributor to the unit’s recruitment, retention and morale.
Expeditions play a vital role in developing leaders of tomorrow and are a big part of the offer to new joiners and the retention of existing members. Without the support of The Ulysses Trust the scale and scope of expeditions would be significantly impacted. Costs would increase and fewer OCdts would be able to afford to take part.
KEY POINTS
- EMUOTC has deployed expeditions to Corsica, Iceland and the UK with support from The Ulysses Trust. Activities have included skiing, mountaineering, canoeing, trekking and mountain biking.
- Since 2017 The Trust has supported 14 EMUOTC expeditions involving 238 OCdts with grants totalling £19,750.
- In 2022 the Trust supported 7 EMUOTC expeditions to help reintroduce Adventurous Training following the aftermath of COVID-19.