I wonder how/if they have removed double counting here of cadets double-hatting?
Quality not quantityā¦id rather a Sqn does 1 night a week well and more importantly sustainably rather than stretching themselves to do 2.
Just need to be brave and bold to decide to do that.
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However, in these days of budgets and value for money, building utilisation becomes a major factor.
A Joint Centre with 2 units doing 2 nights a week and some weekend utilisation - Good
A building used one night a week? - guess which one will be looked at as a viability option when the Ā£s get tight
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As others have said, particularly by taking the ACF model a kot more is done on the weekends and often at Company level.
With this in mindā¦:
Seems like an obvious way to achieve it.
Keep the Sqn night the fun night which will be Sqn specific be that drill pigs or first aud exercises or water sports or whatever theme the Sqn has based on Sqn CFAV numbers, passions and interests
The general training is not unique to any Squadron yet the way we deliver it is given a wude breath of CFAVās abilities in the subject.
The pandemic proved VPNs work and so why not combine the universal lessons into a universal training package on a Wing or Region level?
5 volunteers across the wing can each volunteer to deliver the same subjects across an assigned evening this removing any clash witha parade night
For instance the map and compass lesson 1 is taught each night M-F thus allowing those who parade Mondays 4 other opportunities in the week to attend that evening
It also means 25 sqn āexpertsā in a certain topic are not excluded- on the basis not are actually experts or interested in being a Wing Champion leaving those uber keen CFAVs each get a night to exercise their lesson
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Iām broadly in favour of this model but it would require some trimming of Wing level training and especially vanity projects, to free up the time. Or integrate it so that cadets have 2 or 3 streams of activities open to them on day a Saturday.
On the flip side, we might be able to attract volunteers who have more free time at weekends than during the week, and if we could sort our processes out we could make more use of parents to help. A wing or sector led training programme would reduce the problems that sometimes come with Jonny or Jane being taught by mum or dad.
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Not for us they didnāt. If i dropped to 1 night a week, Iād lose a good portion of my cadets.
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VPNs nearly killed us - the kids do it so often at school that itās just an instant turn off. Likewise with staff who use it al lot at lot.
The fun of the cadets is the people & the activities - if you are not meeting fun people & mucking about with them the thereās now fun.
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I still think we should take most of the classification stuff and throw it in the bin. Itās boring and quite frankly useless information.
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Unless of course youre a young person interested in aviation and therefore joined the AIR CADETSā¦
But i get your point.
SOME of it is utter bollsā¦ but i maintain thats because the resources are still gash, not the subjects.
Even history of flight could be excellent if every sqn was funded a build your own miniture hot air ballon project by HQAC for example.
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Completely agree. Above Leading, the classification training is a niche interest with very little value or application.
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From an academic perspective I enjoyed the senior and staff part 1 classification content. But it was getting out of date when I did it and has only gotten worse. It was also more relevant as we actually flew regularly and there were plenty of solo opportunities or work experience on station where you saw it in action.
These days the higher levels should not be core elements of training and could be delivered more centrally for those interested.
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Fun did someone mention fun, whoa got to pause that idea.
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I did attempt to improve the Aircraft Handling and Flying Techniques stuff and made some progress but itās a lot of work and frankly doing it on top of my day job broke me. I donāt know where it went or whether some of my stuff was used in the end or not but donāt underestimate the effort required to update a syllabus and produce resources.
I do appreciate how much effort it takes to produce and maintain a good training course. Iām not convinced that the effort is worthwhile for the niche interest that is cadets who want to study more advanced aviation topics. Perhaps we should provide optional PTS style aviation knowledge courses rather than a mandatory classification syllabus with lots of different subjects at Senior and Master?
But Iām heading off topic, sorry. Back to cadet numbers, which are effected by far more than classification subjects.
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Make the First Class syllabus mandatory - 3 courses that must be undertaken by all to ensure a standard baseline of knowledge, and is taught by CFAV or MOI-qualified cadet SNCOs.
Cadets can then choose 3 subjects for each of their levels from a selection of available programmes, with the emphasis on self-study as much as possible. Exams could still be taken at the unit under exam conditions, to satisfy the BTEC requirements.
PTS/optional courses (eg MOI) could still be delivered at a squadron by CFAV, but it would alleviate a lot of stress for volunteers and build cadetsā ability to take responsibility for themselves, as well as freeing up more squadron time for the fun stuff.
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I dunno the syllabus being boring for 1/3 of the year probably does have an impact.
I would still bin everything above First Class and build the classifications around the PTS, give each badge a points value, X number of points for Leading, Y number of points for senior etc.
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I wouldnāt necessarily bin off Classifications; but I would be inclined to move it to a PTS model - first class is blue, leading bronze, senior silver and goldā¦ Will be some elitist geeky summer camp at the University of Cranfield studying high level aeronautical engineeringā¦
Maybe.
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QAIC?
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It does save reinventing the wheelā¦
Now about those FC and AT PTS badgesā¦
Basically the ACF modelā¦theres so much sense coming from that Org
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