Officers are the leaders of the New Zealand Army. They are the managers and strategists. Their decision-making skills and problem-solving abilities enable them to plan and execute tasks in wide-ranging conditions. It is their job to earn trust and respect, and to display the strength of character to inspire their soldiers in potentially difficult situations.
After completing Officer training, you will join a corps, specialising in combat, engineering, intelligence, communications or logistics.
As a General List Officer you are the frontline leader of the Army, to begin with, as a junior officer, you will be expected to:
Officers are deployed all around the world, including UN missions (e.g. as an observer in Lebanon or Syria) and Afghanistan as part of our Provisional Reconstruction Team. Officers
also have the opportunity to be chosen for exchange postings or conduct professional training and development overseas.
As you continue in the organisation, you will move between your primary specialty and into areas such as capability, project management (procurement of Army equipment), Human Resource Management and Training and Development.
While undertaking Officer Training you will hold the Rank of Officer Cadet (see attached pay table). On graduation from your commissioning course will be promoted to Second Lieutenant and your pay will continue to increase as your career progresses.
While we accept school leavers, we would prefer people who may have a bit of life experience and possibly some tertiary education. There are some tertiary scholarship opportunities for school leavers who have achieved well at school and are interested in engineering. All Officers will have the opportunity to pursue further study as you progress through your career.
Upon successful enlistment into the Army you’ll be posted to Waiouru Army base. Here you will do a 6 week Initial Officer Training (IOT) course to find out if you have got what it takes to be in the Army, and learn various subjects including:
TF (Part time) Officer Cadets conduct a modular training course over a two year period designed to achieve the same outcome as the Regular Force course.
All Regular Force (full time) Officer Cadets complete the New Zealand Commission Course over 11 months at Officer Cadet School. This follows on directly from the IOT and is physically and mentally demanding. This is where your grounding as officers begins. If you pass, you will be commissioned into the Officer Corps at a graduation ceremony.
Junior officer training within the New Zealand Army includes further formal courses. Officers are expected to complete these courses in their first 1-4 years. These are:
The aim of an officer's initial corps course is to prepare the officer to assume a junior command appointment within his or her corps. This training is conducted as soon as possible after an officer completes his or her initial officer training. In most cases this training is conducted in New Zealand at the officer's parent corps school however, for selected corps, an officer's initial corps course may need to be conducted at an overseas training establishment.
The Junior Staff Officers Course is designed to prepare officers to perform the non-operational duties of an officer at unit and formation headquarters level. This training is sponsored by the School of Army Administration and is delivered by distance education and residential training.
Intermediate Officer Training within the New Zealand Army includes three formal courses aimed at further developing leadership, command tactics and planning skills.
You may be required to conduct other courses or training depending on how your career progresses.
Officers are needed wherever the New Zealand Army operates. Within New Zealand, we have major camps at Linton, Burnham, Trentham, Wellington, Papakura and Waiouru.