The Future is for the Youth

At the greatest career-choosing event in Hungary, Dr. Zsolt Kutnyánszky said that the job market has never changed as quickly as it does now, but the palette of education is also constantly getting richer.

“Career choice is the first major, responsible decision in youngsters’ lives. However, compared to previous generations, they are more likely to change their career path later.” – he said. He underlined that the Hungarian Defence Forces can address not only those who would choose the military career path for a lifetime but also those who wish to serve their country as reservists besides their main job or studies. For this, the HDF provide professional background, financial and career support, while the social support for the HDF is also constantly growing, he added.

He said that Hungary is building such strong and modern armed forces that are made up of loyal, assiduous, brave, disciplined and comradely soldiers. The state secretary recalled that our defence budget has reached two per cent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), thus, we fulfil our NATO defence spending pledge. The realization of the Defence and Military Development Program is going on at a good pace.

He underlined that “to build modern armed forces, we also need a domestic military industry that can provide for itself; several production capabilities of this have already been built out”.

Dr. Zsolt Kutnyánszky also recalled that the HDF have a cooperation agreement with 15 higher education institutions. Cooperations renewed last year create new possibilities for coordinating the defence industry, research and development and innovative efforts, for passing down national defence knowledge and even for recruitment.

Within the framework of teaching the national defence subject in higher education, the University of Pécs, for instance, offers 10 credits to those students who complete the unified basic training. Most territorial reservists with active student status in higher education currently attend the University of Pécs.

He emphasized that last year’s “I love it, I defend it!” countrywide reservist recruitment campaign primarily tried to address higher education students, who form a group with dynamic and good learning skills. A motivation system has also been developed for expanding the reservist personnel.

Freshly recruited reservists receive a HUF 150,000 gross contracting fee and their annual availability fee is HUF 600,000 gross. Besides, each reservist can receive a referral bonus of HUF 500,000 for each person joining the HDF based on their recommendation maximum three times a year, if the necessary conditions are met.

“Besides these, university students might receive further allowances, such as reservist university grants or extra admission scores.” In his speech, he also mentioned that the Faculty of Military Science and Officer Training at the Ludovika University of Public Service is the only faculty in Hungary that offers military higher education. “The country needs determined, dedicated and well-trained youngsters”, he concluded.

At the Expo, Dr. Zsolt Kutnyánszky visited the exhibition site of the Hungarian Defence Forces and the Faculty of Military Science and Officer Training, Ludovika University of Public Service; and he also met with the military athletes of the HDF Sports Company and the staff of the HDF recruitment spot.