HMS Sultan has become the first military training academy to be rated outstanding by Ofsted inspectors.
Local MP Caroline Dinenage has praised the Royal Navy’s engineering school in Gosport for its achievement, following an inspection earlier this year.
It comes 12 months after Sultan – which employs 3,000 people – was saved from closure when the government axed plans to build a new £13bn military training establishment in St Athan, Wales.
Caroline said the top Ofsted grade will boost efforts to keep the Military Road establishment open, which she has campaigned to secure since her election.
She said: ‘This is fantastic news for HMS Sultan and for Gosport. It confirms what we have all known – that the engineering training delivered at Sultan is second to none and is a massive asset for the military.’
The base, which trains 5,000 sailors every year, is the first military training facility ever to achieve an outstanding grade during the annual inspection, which looks at the welfare and the duty of care for recruits and trainees in armed forces training across all of the MoD’s 11 sites.
Inspectors praised Sultan’s attention paid to supporting each trainee’s personal, training and learning needs.