Comparing occupations
Choose up to three occupations to compare entry information, training and service options. Your shortlist stays in this browser when storage is available.
Compare your choices
Follow an occupation’s training and career pathway
Considering part-time service? Explore the Reserve guide.
Choose up to three occupations to compare service options, entry information, training and civilian qualifications. Available service options do not guarantee a vacancy at your local unit.
Browse training lengths
These are published week figures for named courses or phases, not a ranking of time until you are fully qualified. Read the phase description beside each figure. Profiles also preserve durations published in months or days, ranges and on-the-job stages. Training durations checked 15 September 2026.
| Occupation | Weeks | Element | Worth outside |
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Browse civilian qualification categories
The single most useful thing to know before choosing, and the thing recruiting material is least direct about. Six occupations are listed by the Forces as having no civilian equivalent at all.
Browse occupations by school
Reverse of the join on the bases page. If you are weighing where you would spend a year of your life, this is the list that answers it.
Browse service options
Most occupations are open in the Reserve. The interesting lists are the exceptions at either end.
Built from the occupation, note and bases datasets on this site. Training lengths and credentials carry the source of the listing that states them, shown on each occupation's own page. Nothing here is an official ranking — the Forces publish no such comparison, which is why this page exists.
Browse them instead
All 110 occupations, filterable by element, entry, area of work, training length and credential.
Trades & OccupationsWhere the training happens
Forty-five bases, wings and schools, each listing the trades it qualifies.
Bases & schools