Officer candidate or officer aspirant (OA) is a rank in some militaries of the world that is an appointed position while a person is in training to become an officer. More often than not, an officer candidate was a civilian who applied to join the military directly as an officer. Officer candidates are, therefore, not considered of the same status as enlisted personnel. In several NATO countries, the term officer designate (OF-D) is used. In the NATO rank scale, it comes below the grade of OF-1 and above the grade of Student Officer. Ranks designated as OF-D include dokimos efedros axiomatikos in the Hellenic Army, and chuẩn úy ("officer designate") in the Vietnam People's Army. In the German Armed Forces, officer designates are enlisted personnel and have a corresponding rank code. Finland In the Finnish Defence Forces, officer candidate is an NCO rank, comparable to sergeant. Officer candidates are graduates of the Reserve Officer School, where they have been trained as officer students. At the end of their conscript service they are promoted to the rank of second lieutenant. Germany In the German Armed Forces, officer designates are enlisted personnel. Soldiers accepted for officer training are given the annotation () for ("Officer Aspirant") to their rank. Then the designate progresses through the ranks of (OR-5), (OR-6) and (OR-7) in the German Army and German Air Force. Officer designates in the German Navy go through the corresponding ranks of , and instead. Officer designates in the army and air force wear the same uniform and insignia as the corresponding NCOs; added a silver metal tissue cord on their shoulder straps. A distinction to this is the insignia of the . His service and dress uniforms, including the shoulder straps, are sowed the silver piping, indicating the officer career instead of the NCO piping. However, his rank insignia on mounting loops for the field uniform are identical to the non-commissioned ; plus the cord of the officer designate. The navy doesn't use a silver cord to indicate the officer designates; instead a golden nautical star is displayed. The rank insignia of and is the same as for the corresponding NCOs, but exchanges the anchor symbol with the nautical star. The rank insignia for is lent to the , displaying the nautical star and a golden half-stripe — also on the field uniform. Indonesia In the Indonesian National Armed Forces, an officer candidate