The Effectiveness of Recruitment and Selection of Trainees for National Defense Force – the case of Central Zone of Tigray Region

Ethiopian Ministry of Defense has developed a set of well-defined guidelines that are used in the selection of new recruits for the national defense force, based on clearly defined criteria and other nationally accepted yardsticks. Nevertheless, the challenges and prospects of the selection and screening of potential candidates that are fit by all standards to serve in the national defense forces has not so far been well investigated. Therefore, this study was conducted with the aim of investigating the challenges and prospects of the selection and recruitment processes of trainees and coming up with recommendations. A complete assessment of the respondents in each of the twelve weredas and one zonal security administration was conducted following a purposive sampling scheme. Zonal and four woreda security committee were purposively selected for focus group discussions because they are among the people involved in the screening and selection of candidates for military training in the area who have more knowledge and experience on the issue. The study has identified that the recruitment and selection process of candidates in the Central Zone of Tigray was not effective owing to poor recruitment and selection criteria, allocation of insufficient budget, lack of good coordination and integration and unsatisfactory level of transparency among committee members during the screening and selection process as well as absence of efforts to create an inspiring and popular image of the Ethiopian Defense Forces. This study has, therefore, come up with recommendations such as having appropriate recruitment and selection criteria, allocating sufficient budget and creating positive image towards the Ethiopian Defense Force