As the military struggles to attract new recruits, the Navy on Monday launched a pilot program that admits those who have lower scores on a portion of the entrance exam used to assess a recruit’s fitness for service.
Prospective seafarers are required to take the Armed Forces Qualification Test (AFQT) to determine if they are qualified for the service, as part of the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery, better known as the ASVAB.
As part of the Navy’s pilot program, the service accepts lower AFQT scores between the 10th and 30th percentile as long as the prospective sailor’s single line ASVAB scores are still high enough to qualify for a Navy rating.
“The change means that prospective sailors who have high enough ASVAB line scores to qualify for a Navy rating will not be held back by a low AFQT score, which may vary compared to the results of their peers on the test said Navy Recruiting Command spokesman Cmdr. said David Benham in an email.
An individual’s qualifications for various Navy ratings are based on 10 different ASVAB ratings, which help the service determine where a sailor would best fit in the fleet. Such job determinations are not based on their AFQT total score, Benham said.
“To qualify for hiring, the individual must still meet the minimum score for a particular Navy rating,” Benham said. “These ASVAB lineage rating requirements remain unchanged by this policy and cannot be waived.”
TIED TOGETHER
Those who fall in the lower AFQT percentiles must already have completed high school, and the Navy plans to offer that exemption for up to 20 percent of its enrollments, Benham said.
The pilot program will run through the end of fiscal year 2023 and will be reevaluated in October.
“As we continue to operate in a challenging recruitment environment, changing the AFQT requirement removes a potential barrier to hiring, allowing us to expand the pool of potential recruits and create opportunities for employees who wish to serve,” said Benham.
The announcement of the change in test scores comes after the Navy raised the maximum enlistment age from 39 to 41 last month.
The Naval Service barely met its active duty recruitment target for fiscal year 22, which ended September 30, bringing in just 42 more positions than the target of 33,400 new members.
Navy recruitment leaders have warned they expect FY23 to be another difficult year.
Geoff is Senior Navy Reporter for the Military Times. He has reported extensively on Iraq and Afghanistan and was most recently a reporter for the Chicago Tribune. He welcomes any tips at [email protected].