Updated: MORE than 200 junior soldiers marched in front of proud relatives and friends at a graduation ceremony at the Army Foundation College in Harrogate.

The students, all aged 17, were the first to pass out from the college’s new short course.

The new six-month long course runs alongside the year-long course, which the college has run since its formation in 1998.

The new course delivers basic training to the soldiers before they leave to follow their longer and more specialist technical training. Brigadier Greville Bibby CBE, Commander of 15 (North East) Brigade inspected the students, who came from all over the UK.