I feel like if we want national service just make it part of scouts… in fact the UK already has a scout summer camp thing thats basically kiddies first army training. Its just rather expensive. If instead we made it free and maybe even incentivized (Army scouts = summer camp + your first part time job?) it’d firstly be voluntary and secondly we’d have a way better recruiting pool for the actual army when people get older. The lack of commitment would also mean people maybe not interested in the army but curious can give it a try and at the very least the people who went would come back moderately fitter and able to serve in a militia in the unlikely event the UK mainland is ever invaded.
The USA has a program between the Army and the Boy Scouts of America, or whatever they’re calling themselves these days. When I was younger you could enlist into the Army at the rank of E3 if you obtained Eagle Scout in the Boy Scouts. That’s the equivalent of a couple years worth of non-war-time promotions, so that was a pretty cool benefit.
