Just Let This Sink In: Capita Wins 12-year £1bn Contract To Provide Training Services To The Royal Navy And Marines

Weeks after the British Army renewed a contract that retained Capita at the heart of its recruitment services, the oft-criticised outsourcing biz has snaffled a £1bn deal to provide training services for the Royal Navy and Marines.

In a statement to the London Stock Exchange today, Capita said the 12-year agreement will see the company endeavour to "modernise" the Navy's shore-based training in 16 sites across the UK as the lead partner in a consortium, Fisher Training, which bid for the work.

Apparently, Capita will use its "expertise" in "transformation, learning and the delivery of complex, technology enabled defence projects".

The Fisher Training Consortium (FTC) includes Raytheon UK, Elbit Systems UK, Fujitsu, and some smaller suppliers in addition to Capita. Between them, the group will provide tech, processes and training management systems. The work will be worth nine zeroes to Capita.

The plan is to update all training courses and deploy analytics to monitor training methods; use digital learning and training simulation to help the running of "live on-the-ground training"; manage the procurement and decommissioning of Royal Navy equipment; and run IT, including data generated by a performance dashboard.

Trying to improve accreditation and apprenticeship management, running Royal Navy learning and development hubs, and also trying to resell the Royal Navy course to the "wider international defence market", as well as "identifying further revenue opportunities for the services" are also part of the consortium's remit.

Around 1,100 employees from FTC will work with Royal Navy bods.

The intention is to "increase efficiency in delivery, reducing redundant elements of current training and minimising time lost away from the front line for service personnel."

Capita's reward for failures on the MoD's Recruitment Partnership Project, which was beset with delays, cock-ups and, for a period, a reduction in the number people actually joining the forces – and which MPs branded as "abysmal" – was: a recent extension. Fingers crossed the deal with the Navy works out better.

A publication with a sense of humour might go so far as to suggest that perhaps the current UK government is comprised of pacifists rather than the blood-thirsty Tories their enemies on the left often accuse them of being. That might explain the Capita award. El Reg couldn't comment. ®