Artillery troops hit target with FÁS excellence award

TROOPS at Cork’s Collins Barracks became the first Irish soldiers yesterday to win a prestigious industry award.

The FÁS Excellence Through People Award, which was piloted by the army’s First Southern Brigade, based at Collins Barracks, will now be rolled out across the Defence Forces.

The scheme is described as Ireland’s national standard for human resource management and is usually awarded to businesses.

Top brass at Collins Barracks set about achieving the standard in their unique workplace about six months ago.

The army had to tweak existing training programmes to come into line with the award.

Areas like recruitment and selection, leadership, people management, the planning of training schemes, employee well-being, and effective communication were among the criteria examined.

Yesterday, FÁS director general Rody Molloy, congratulated the first two units to achieve the required standard.

He praised the army’s ability to incorporate the award criteria into the military’s complex management structure.

Up to 125 soldiers in the 1st Field Artillery Regiment (1st FAR) of the Southern Brigade, and 20 instructors in the brigade’s training centre (BTC), were presented with certificates.