East Midlands Universities Officer Training Corps

East Midlands Universities Officer Training Corps (EMUOTC) is one of nineteen University Officer Training Corps in the United Kingdom. Part of the 49 (East) Brigade, EMUOTC draws recruits from a population of over 110,000 students from eight universities in the East Midlands area: Nottingham, Nottingham Trent, Northampton, Derby, De Montfort, Leicester, Lincoln, Loughborough.

EMUOTC aims to develop the leadership potential of selected university students, raising awareness of the Army’s ethos and building interest in its career opportunities in order to secure their commitment, whether as officers or as future leaders in their chosen profession, or to champion the Army in society.

History
EMUOTC was first formed on 27 April 1909 as "University College Nottingham Officer Training Corps" (UCN OTC), when 27 students from University College Nottingham petitioned the university’s Senate Council to form an Officer Training Corps unit. Their petition was accepted by the War Secretary — the equivalent of today’s Ministry of Defence — and later that same year, the unit was formed.

First & Second World Wars
In the First World War, 1,600 students had passed through UCN OTC into war service, of whom 229 were killed and 500 were wounded. This nearly 50% percent casualty rate was high, even by Great War standards.

In the Second World War, no formal records were kept of members who served but the size of the Corps, which now included Loughborough College, rose to four companies of infantry and two sections of engineers.

The names of those who died in both conflicts are recorded on a plaque in the University of Nottingham's Trent Building.

Renaming
With considerable foresight the name of the unit was changed in 1966 to the “East Midlands University Officer Training Corps” in a move that allowed volunteers from all higher education institutions in the East Midlands to join.

Affiliation to the Sherwood Foresters
As part of the unit's historic affiliations with the Sherwood Foresters (Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Regiment) (since amalgamated into the Worcestershire and Sherwood Foresters Regiment and presently 2nd Battalion, Mercian Regiment), EMUOTC's stable belt is horizontally half green and maroon, charged with a thin central horizontal silver strip for differentiation known as the 'silver stripe of learning.' EMUOTC's capbadge is that of the Sherwood Foresters, with replaced wording.

The regimental colours of 2nd Battalion, Sherwood Foresters are framed and mounted in EMU OTC's mess.

Training & activities
The East Midlands OTC is staffed by a mixture of officers from the Regular Army and the TA. It comes under the aegis of 49th Brigade (East) based at Chilwell and its activities are supervised by the East Midlands Combined Universities Military Education Committee (MEC), which includes members from all seven constituent universities.

Members of the OTC hold the rank of officer cadets (OCdt) and are "Group B" members of the Army Reserve, paid when on duty. As part of "Group B" however they are neither trained for nor liable for mobilised (active) service overseas. Unless in receipt of an Army Scholarship, Cadets have no obligation to join the regular British Army or mainstream TA when they leave university, and can resign from the OTC at any time.

Training occurs in Nottingham on Wednesday university term-time evenings, and five weekends throughout the academic year. The training year culminates with a two week training package in the summer which includes an extended field exercise, live-firing and inter-platoon competitions. In addition there are a number of supplementary events and courses. These range from insight and competition weekends offered by various arms and services from across the Army, to physical training and instructor qualifications and the chance to attempt All Arms Pre-Parachute Selection (P Company).

Some officer cadets choose to complete the Reserve Commissioning Course at The Royal Military Academy Sandhurst during their time with us and become an Officer. They will then be responsible for leading up to thirty reservists as part of their own platoon, alongside taking an active role in the delivery of training at EMUOTC.

Current organisation
Officer cadets are currently organised into three companies within EMUOTC, according to length of service:


 * Badajoz Company (First year officer cadets)
 * The Military Leadership Development Programme (MLDP) 1 syllabus introduces new recruits into the UOTC and Army Reserve. Officer cadets should be able to function in field exercises as a trained soldier upon completion of the year. First year recruits will study various military skills, such as; map reading, navigation, handling the SA80 weapons system, marksmanship, battlefield first aid, fieldcraft and drill.


 * Alma Company (Second year officer cadets)
 * Having learned the basic series of military skills, MLDP 2 focuses more on leadership development. Officer cadets will study how to process information about a battlefield, turn that information systematically into a set of orders and deliver them in a confident manner, using the principles of Mission Command. They will also cover in more depth map reading, signals and work on personal skills such as public speaking, team work and confidence under testing conditions. Upon completion of MLDP 2 officer cadets may be awarded a NVQ Level 3 award in leadership and management.


 * Gheluvelt Company (Senior officer cadets)
 * Third year and beyond in Gheluvelt Company sees officer cadets apply their training to practice in leadership roles, guiding and educating less senior officer cadets of Badajoz (1st years) and Alma (2nd years) companies.