Army veterans share their expertise with Mansfield college students

James Maosa, 41, and Wayne Hall, 49, have more than 40 years’ service between them in the British Army and they are now switching careers to teach young people the skills they need to move into the uniformed services.

James, originally from Kenya, joined the British Army in 2003, beginning his basic training with the Royal Signals as a radio operator. His training then took him to Bath for three years, followed by Nuneaton and then overseas to Germany for four years. James was also deployed to Afghanistan for six months before returning to the UK.

James first thought about going into teaching following working in a gym while in Germany. He found he enjoyed the training and instructing and the feeling of watching new recruits progress their fitness for life in the army fuelled his desire to teach.

Wayne joined the army in 1997 to be with the Royal Engineers. He did three tours of training establishments, including one at the Bassingbourn barracks in Cambridgeshire and two at the Gibraltar barracks in Hampshire.

As an electrical engineer in the Army his qualifications took him abroad numerous times having served in Afghanistan, Iraq, Northern Ireland, and The Falklands.

Wayne said: “We were presented with £2,000 thanks to our research studies. We decided that this money would be very well-spent on some fitness and gym equipment for the UPS curriculum.

"To be able to see students using the very latest equipment to put them through basic fitness before joining the uniformed services – this will give me such pride.”

A number of gym blocks, benches, kettlebells, battle ropes, weighted bags, parallette dip bars and pull-up bars have now been installed in the college’s sports hall for students to use.

James said: “I’m really looking forward to seeing our students making the most of this equipment and getting their fitness to premium levels.

"We will be organising training sessions which are reflective of those which new recruits take part in, so that the students can be confident that they can attain these fitness levels.”