As British troops prepare to lead the peace-keeping force in Afghanistan, Nick Morrison meets the man stepping down after eight years in charge of Army recruitment in the North East.

WHEN Colin Robinson went to enlist in the Army, his mother was none too enthusiastic.

Colin had been weighing up the alternative of a career in the Civil Service, having already passed the exams, but when he was offered a posting in the North-East instead of London, he inclined more towards a life in uniform.

"My mother was not at all keen on me wanting to join the Army," he says. "National Service was just finishing, and because of National Service everyone hated the Army and it didn't have a particularly good reputation. I can remember her going with me a couple of times and talking to the Army careers officer.

"I remember them saying to her: 'You know, he will be 18 very shortly, and then he will be able to join if he wants.' My mother wanted the best for me, and she wasn't convinced that the Army was it. But as long as it was what I wanted to do, she was happy with it."

More than 40 years on, Colin has faced hundreds of parents, perhaps some also with misgivings but many more filled with pride, looking on as their sons, and sometimes daughters, are enlisted into the Army. He is the man responsible for recruitment over a large chunk of the North-East, northwards from Thirsk in North Yorkshire and taking in both Teesside and County Durham.

Now, Lieutenant Colonel Robinson, a South Shields boy, is stepping down from his post after eight years as an Army careers officer, and 42 years in the service. But those eight years have not been good ones for recruitment.

Nationally, the Army needs to take on about 15,000 new recruits a year, just to stand still, but is now falling 6-7,000 short. In the North-East, this year's target of taking on 713 soldiers has also proved optimistic, and Colin expects to be around 150 short. "We're not making any inroads into that number," he says. "This area remains very buoyant for recruiting, but we're not doing the numbers that we were. But, although the North-East is down on its figures, we're still enlisting more people than any other region in the United Kingdom.

"The Army is a career first choice in the North-East, and it is much more part of the fabric here than in other parts of the country. Most people here have some connection with the Army, and there is a very big TA presence.

"But full employment is a factor - a lot of people come to us when they're not very happy in their jobs, and the Army offers security and good pay and a career ladder, but people feel happy in the jobs they have got.

"And the thing that is hurting us the most is the trend towards further education. The great majority of youngsters who leave school at 16 do not go into a job but they go into a government scheme or further education. They're encouraged by their teachers and their parents to think 'college', whereas before it was 'leave school'. There are fewer youngsters who are coming on to the labour market at 16 now."

About 60 per cent of Army recruits are aged 17 to 19, and the older a prospective soldier gets, the less likely he is to aspire to a life in uniform. Qualifications, a decent job and relationships all conspire to encourage them to stay a civilian.

But the problem is not solely in the numbers applying to enlist - which reaches around 70,000 nationally, according to Colin - but that a large number who do apply are unsuitable. And for this, there are a number of reasons, not least of which is the low level of fitness among today's school leavers.

"Youngsters are less fit than they were," he says. "Once we have got them and trained them, they're just as good as their fathers and grandfathers, but they are less fit when they come to us."

But fitness is not the only problem. Another is the rise in drug use, which has forced the Army to change its approach. Whereas in the past recruits were asked whether or not they had taken drugs, now the issue is more likely to be explored in a more general way, as part of a discussion about lifestyle. An admission to using drugs does not disqualify a prospective recruit, and the Army has been forced to become more tolerant.

'Society is changing all the time, and we have to cope with that," Colin says. "We recognise that out there drugs are freely available, and the statistics say many of them have experimented with some kind of drug.

"A lot of it is a one-off, and we accept a certain amount of experimentation with drugs, because we don't want to condemn somebody at 16 because they have smoked a couple of cannabis cigarettes. But we make it clear that drugs are a complete no-go in the Army, and if they're caught, they will be discharged."

The health of those arriving at Army careers offices is also a problem. A sharp increase in the number of asthma sufferers, which has seen the North-East, with its concentration of industry, particularly badly hit, has ruled out many applicants. Recruits have to be free of asthma for four years, and free of an inhaler for two, meaning many otherwise ideal candidates have been rejected.

"The number of people who have failed a medical, for all sorts of reasons, has definitely risen," Colin says. "A lot of factors that would not be a problem anywhere else, stop you joining the Army."

One factor which does not seem to have reversed these trends, is the war on terrorism, in contrast to the involvement of British troops in various peace-keeping missions over the last ten years, including Bosnia, Kosovo, and, now, Afghanistan.

"Afghanistan has had absolutely no effect, it has just registered nil on the scale," says Colin. "But the peace-keeping role the Government has involved us in over the last ten to 15 years has probably done us a lot of good. It is exciting when you're young to go to these places."

But, even though recruitment may be in a long-term decline, and there is no sign of it picking up, he has lost none of his enthusiasm for the Army.

"I don't see any change in the foreseeable future; I think recruiting is going to be difficult. But people who are coming forward are citing the same reasons as when I joined the Army 40 years ago: the challenge; the variety; learning a trade. They see the Army as giving them a secure challenge, and being an exciting job.

"If you asked any long-serving officer or soldier, when he was coming to the end of his career, if he would go back and do it all again, 99 per cent of them would say yes. If you ask many civilians, they would say it was the last thing they would do again.

"I don't have any regrets. I wasn't Army-barmy, I was not 'this is the life for me', and my mother was not really sure it was the right thing for me. But she is now a great fan of the Army, and I have found it extremely rewarding. The Army is a great career for youngsters."