The National Cadet Corps is one of the largest military reserve forces of India. NCC is open to all school/college going students to be enrolled in any of the nearest NCC unit. The NCC gives a vast array of opportunities to students which would either be impossible to get outside or will cost you a huge fortune. In addition to this, NCC ‘C’ certificate holder can directly go to the SSB interview, skipping the Common Entrance Exam (CEE).
Here’s how you can join the Armed Forces using NCC ‘C’ certificate:
- All the three services of the military have some vacancies reserved for the NCC cadets:
- Indian Military Academy, Dehradun – 64
- Officers Training Academy, Chennai – 100
- Indian Navy in Indian Naval Academy – 6 per course
- Indian Air Force in Air Force Academy – 10% in all courses, including flying training courses
- You need to have a minimum 3 years of service in any of the three wings of NCC to be eligible to write ‘C’ certificate exam.
- In your ‘C’ certificate exam, get a ‘B’ grade (though ‘B’ and ‘C’ grade don’t have any value, so try to get ‘A’ grade).
- To join the army, apply for NCC Special Entry Scheme through your directorate – ask your unit CO to forward your application to the directorate which will then forward it to the recruiting directorate. If you get shortlisted, follow the procedure of SSB interview. All the vacancies through this are to be filled by NCC cadets.
- To join the Navy and Air Force, there isn’t any special entry but the entries which are published from time to time have some vacancies reserved for NCC ‘C’ certificate holders. You just need to mention in your application that you have an NCC ‘C’ certificate.
- Although the cadets of Air Wing and Naval Wing have some vacancies in Air Force and Navy respectively, they can apply for NCC Special Entry Scheme to join the army.
- But the cadets who are from Army Wing are not eligible for the vacancies in the Air Force or the Navy.
- So, it is best to either opt for Air Wing or Naval Wing over Army Wing depending on your first preference. In my case, I wish to join the Air Force, so I have opted for Air Wing over Naval and Army. Though Naval Wing’s NCC vacancies are out of bound for me, I am still eligible to join the Army through Special Entry Scheme.
- Although for Air Force, you need to apply within 12 months of leaving NCC (along with AFCAT or CDSE), you can apply for others as long as you have the age limit.
- You will be awarded extra marks in your SSB as follows:
| Certificate | Army | Navy | Air Force |
| A | 5% addl marks on overall marks scored in SSB | +22 marks in SSB | +3 marks in SSB |
| B | 8% Same as above | +44 marks in SSB | +4 marks in SSB |
| C | 10% same + no written exam | +66 marks in SSB | +5 marks in SSB |
*At least 50-60% marks in graduation needed for C certificate to be applicable. C Cert alone would not have any value.
- Age limits would be as per the notification and date of commencement of the training for a particular course.
- One can apply for PC from SSC through internal procedures.
For any queries, message me on FB through my link above. I’ll be happy to help. Alternatively, you can post your query on the SSBCrack Support group on fb where other like-minded people will help you out.
To crack SSB and AFSB Interview get “Let’s Crack SSB Interview” Book from Amazon. Trusted by thousands of defence aspirants
Also Download Helpful eBooks:
