Military ditching aptitude test for some applicants, will start accepting recruits with medical conditions

The military has dropped its aptitude test from the application process for dozens of jobs and plans to start accepting recruits with pre-existing medical conditions — trial efforts meant to boost the Canadian Armed Forces' dismal recruitment numbers.

Brig.-Gen. Krista Brodie, the commander overseeing military recruitment, said the new trials are meant to test out possible solutions as CAF continues to lose more people than it brings in.

"We're changing things and measuring and adjusting as we go," Brodie told CBC News. "We don't always get it right but it's moving in a positive direction."

The Department of National Defence (DND) projected in February that Canada's military could be short 15,225 people in both the regular and reserve forces by the end of the fiscal year. Defence Minister Bill Blair called the collapse in recruitment "a death spiral for the Canadian Armed Forces."

"We cannot afford to continue at that pace," he said.

That stark message came after CBC News reported Canada is falling behind on military readiness, with only 58 per cent of the military able to respond if called upon in a crisis by NATO allies. Blair said the forces have to come up with "creative" solutions to the personnel shortfall.

Among its new initiatives to turn around recruitment numbers, the military is looking to eliminate two potential barriers. All recruits must now meet a single medical standard that may be too rigid, Brodie said, while the aptitude test also may be holding people back.

About 60 per cent of people who express interest in joining the forces either fail to book their aptitude test or don't show up to write it, Brodie said.

"What we've come to appreciate is that the [Canadian Forces Aptitude Test] itself may be a barrier to processing," she said in December.

The Canadian Armed Forces Aptitude Test (CFAT) is an hour-long multiple-choice test that scores people on their verbal skills, spatial ability and problem-solving. It must be completed in-person on a computer at a recruitment office or military site and is meant to give military career counsellors a sense of which jobs would best suit new recruits.

Until recently, the test was mandatory for all applicants.

The military initially tried allowing recruits with lower scores to join the ranks — a change Brodie said "didn't make a discernible difference" to recruitment.

In mid-December, the military launched a new trial — exempting 20 non-commissioned roles and 27 direct-entry officer posts from the aptitude test requirement. The exempt jobs range from ordinary sailor to intelligence officer.

DND says that, to be eligible to apply without writing the aptitude test, applicants must have university degrees or college diplomas, "meet ideal educational requirements for their selected occupations, or ... have relevant education, work and life experience."