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Belgian military opens pop-up shop to find new recruits

21:04 09/02/2023

The Belgian defence ministry is to open a pop-up store in the Docks Bruxsel shopping centre in Schaerbeek in a bid to recruit more young people into the country's armed forces.

This will be the third pop-up store of its kind, and the first in Brussels. The two previous recruitment campaigns were held in the Wijnegem shopping centre, near Antwerp, and the Médiacité in Liège.

“Defence careers are still too unknown to young people,” a press release announcing the campaign said.

“By being present in shopping centres, we hope to increase visibility and inform young people about existing job opportunities, especially since it is important to bring open vacancies to the attention of the public, especially due to the shortage of manpower on the labour market.”

There are a total of 2,500 vacancies for military personnel this year, including vacancies for 300 officers, 950 non-commissioned officers and 1,250 soldiers and marines.

“There is work for more than 100 different profiles, in all kinds of fields, ranging from operational and technical jobs to support functions in logistics and administration,” the defence ministry said.

The recruitment campaign in Docks Bruxsel shopping centre will run from 13 February to 11 March.

Written by Paul Millar