Just noticed on social media that for Army Cadets you now just have to be 12 - no requirement to be in year 8 to join.
We have a good amount of cadets due to join in September but it does seem a shame that they miss out on this summer.
Will this nab cadets from under us as they can join sooner, or is a race to go younger make retention harder later on?
Interesting decision!
Ooh really not sure that is the way we want to go…
We’ll be competing with Squirrels next
Yeah. No thanks.
Maturity noticeably drops off below 13 as it is.
The whole point of reducing from 13 was to align school years, would kind of defeat that
This will get into the old situation of joining by the pure accident of date of birth. I forget how many times you’d have an intake in Sep/Oct and there being eager youngsters being told you’ll have to come back when they are of age. But the majority didn’t as they found something else to do, as oddly the Air Cadets is just one provider not the provider for teenagers.
Moving to entry based on school year was one of the most positive changes ever made. It’s a shame all activities didn’t follow suit. This would be the single biggest problem if the joining age was reduced, trying to keep them interested/engaged on the promise not of jam tomorrow, but next week or next month, if they weren’t able to do the same as others, not overlooking the requirement to have staff to do something else.
As for maturity, highly subjective and individual thing.
More of a point…
What would we actually do with them?
No flying or gliding for 18 months for them.
Would shooting be allowed? Or would age restrictions return?
Would other activities be age restricted?
More of a concern to me… is that if a cadet joins at 12. That extra 6 months would mean on my unit that by the time they were 14 they would be a senior cadet and have completed all blue badges etc, many at bronze.
What next… leaves a large gap!
This thread is obviously speculative and hypothetical. But if it were to be adopted by the rafac. I could see cadet service being terminated at 18 regardless.
12 to 18.
Much simpler
“Neater”.
Just thoughts…
Lets just say. I remain to be convinced!
13 yrs is about the right age. Doesn’t the SCC accept 10 yr olds? Far too young. Didn’t become a CFAV to babysit primary children.
Not being able to all things has been a feature of join in Yr8, because no one at HQAC really thought about it beforehand and left us to deal with the problems it created. I remember joining at 13 and 3 and not being able to be enrolled until 13 and 9; you were enrolled, you were 1st Class and just able to do things. Bring this forward to age 11 and there will be less for them to do it just becomes a sort of holiday camp club, unless the rules are changed up front.
Most cadets seem to finish early in Yr12 as FE isn’t quite the breeze GCSEs were and or they need to travel to the FE college so getting to the sqn is less of a priority and part-time work kicking in for a number. So starting in yr 8 and getting things done in 2-3 years isn’t for me a problem.
I’ve said that we should finish cadet service at 18 for a long time so we are a proper youth organisation and get shot down by the we need the over 18 cadets to hang around in uniform to be CFAV at 20 mob.
I think Yr8 to 18 is much more sensible so they can all start together and finish as and when they hit 18. If they can want to become a CI, they can start just before 18 and as long as their DBS is done and completed the multi-choice online safeguarding stuff and just carry on went they hit 18, as adults, not the odd hybrid we have now.
9 year olds. But the junior section (9-12 year olds) is run very differently. Lots of fun, craft and glitter, STEM (done well and age appropriate) plus standard nautical themed activities. Often the Juniors has a slightly different staff team to accommodate they differing interests/needs of the cohort too.
Based upon all the RN blokes (mostly former RN now) and their hobbies I would be incredibly worried about this syllabus!
A different uniform as well… polo shirt and sweatshirt. Much like a school uniform at that age, but with the addition of a beret.
In my experience they often meet on at least one separate evening to the other half of the unit.
It is, as said, a very different beast.
VPC similar at least for those attached to my local force, not sure if they start at 10 or 11 but certainly a junior section.