The Royal Air Force has met its Government-set recruitment targets for BAME and female individuals.
Royal Air Force Recruitment and Selection – in collaboration with key stakeholders - has been working extremely hard to make the RAF a more diverse organisation that is better reflective of the society it serves. Through targeted interventions, within a legal framework of Positive Action, across the attract, recruit and select space, a wide range of stakeholders have been engaged, including BAME and Gender Networks, to identify barriers to BAME and female recruitment.
Her Majesty’s Government set the RAF a target of 10% BAME inflow and 15% women inflow. Despite these challenging targets, the RAF set a stretch target for females of 20%. Hitting these targets is an amazing achievement and ones that bodes well for the future.
The achievement represents a 4% and 3% increase in BAME and Women inflow over the past 12 months and is the first time the RAF has achieved this level of recruitment inflow and achieving these inflow targets validates the collective effort across a number of stakeholders to ensure the RAF strives to attract, select and recruit talent from all sectors of society and particularly from underrepresented cohorts.
The RAF recognises the values and benefits of being a diverse organisation and offering a rewarding and challenging career to all. These achievements set the baseline for the RAF to continue to grow its levels of recruitment representation over the next few years, towards achieving the levels of ambition outlined under ASTRA of 20% BAME and 40% female inflow by 2030.