Civilian Candidates Undergoing Training at NCO Course
Thursday, 10.4.2025 | Training
Practical training of the NCO Course participants is underway at the Training Ground Peskovi near Veliko Gradište. They were admitted to this course from civilian background and started their training in December last year.
During the course, which is six months long, candidates are trained for initial NCO duties in the Serbian Armed Forces’ units, in order to be admitted to professional military service for an indefinite time period.
The participants completed the first two eight-week training modules at the NCO Training Center Sergeant Milunka Savić in Pančevo and now they are at the SAF specialist training centers where they are practically being trained to handle branch / service - specific assets.
Future NCOs, training for infantry specialties at the Peskovi Training Ground, are going through tactical and firearms training contents, that is, they are doing single live firing using a 7.9 mm M-76 semi-automatic sniper rifle.
Second Lieutenant Dejan Pavlović, commander of the sniper training team at the Army Training Center in Požarevac, says that the candidates were first trained to handle weapons properly in order to be able to attend more complex training contents.
— We are raising their training to a higher level, through a combination of tactical actions and offensive and defensive fire missions — Second Lieutenant Pavlović explained the essence of the training, stressing that in the coming period they will also be trained with other infantry assets.
One of the civilian course participants who applied to the Serbian Armed Forces competition, Trainee-Lance Corporal Ivan Ćirković, does not hide that his motive was his love for the Serbian Armed Forces and military profession itself, as well as his desire to serve his country in this way.
— The experience is unusual, like no other that could be experienced by a civilian and very useful for our training and for future professional work of SAF NCOs — points out LCpl Ćirković.
A new competition is underway for training civilian candidates as the Serbian Armed Forces’ NCOs according to this model. Interested young men and women can apply for 200 NCO positions in the Ministry of Defense and Serbian Armed Forces by the end of April within the following branches and services: infantry, artillery, AD artillery-missile units, armored units, telecommunications service, quartermaster service, ASEWG service and several technical service specialties (motor engineering, aviation technical, weapons, ordnance and telecommunications).
