If the Government are really serious why bother with FTRS or RFCA staff, make them roles for Regulars and just post people in.
I think see the points above about regulars running a volunteer youth organisation.
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Problem with that is it just becomes a 2yr post that someone fills before moving onto to next post
You lose the continuity and progression
We have already seen this with Commandants and AoC22 having their long term objectives that just vanish after the next Head change and a new plan comes in
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The wider issue is that are we going to DO with all the new cadets? We don’t have capacity to increase flying, camp places are maxed out, DTEs are fully booked, restrictions on instructors are becoming more prevalent. Sooo, we double the number of cadets, but we need to quadruple the CFAVs available, AND get more access to DTEs, training facilities, MT, stations, ranges etc.
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Well now we have cleared out Special K, if we can change AOC22 maybe we can get back on track again instead of their crap agendas.
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We become a defacto cyber school based on how things are progressing
But you are right - the interesting point is how do we provide the ‘fun’ stuff that teenagers want to do and deliver the STEM/Skills based stuff required without scaring the kids away
I think we need to ask the cadets what they want - not have it imposed from above.
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…‘and never the twain shall meet’
I disagree with you here.
As an organisation RAFAC has a vision and a mission. The first thing we must do is determine whether our current ones still align with what the org is actually attempting to achieve.
From that point we work downwards; what activities that we currently deliver support the vision and mission? Which ones are very unaligned and potentially waste valuable and limited resources? What aren’t we doing that could reasonable support in achieving the mission?
We then build our offer based on the answers to the 3 above questions, identifying a new target operating model (if appropriate) and the inevitable capability gaps.
It’s not a quick process, sometimes it’s not a pretty process, but it is essential.
The reasons why asking the cadets what they want doesn’t work is quite simple. Firstly, they have their own strategic level goals and, for many, these won’t align with what the organisation needs to achieve. Secondly, you’re more likely to alienate cadets by having to work to an inappropriate middle-ground based on the numerous different desires that they have - a large minority will inevitably be unhappy.
The latter point is true of the bottom-down approach as well, but the ones who will be happy (and thus more likely to stay) will be the ones aiding the organisation to achieve its aims. In the approach involving asking the cadets what they want, it’s more likely that the ones who leave are the hypermotivated sort who figure they’re not being accommodated.
With time, the offer changes and those joining RAFAC will be attracted by the new offer and (subject to good stratcoms) understand & buy into the rationale behind the offer too, improving motivation and morale.
I can imagine the biggest challenge to this necessary change, however, being certain types of CFAVs - particularly the Walts who just want a uniform and medals for drinking cups of tea in the office. A more strategically focused organisation would have less capacity to accommodate such personnel.
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I’m sorry but no - we should be starting with the cadets. WE ARE NOT A BUSINESS. We need to re-focus on what is important for the young people, and build the Vision and Mission from them, not impose a Vision and Mission ON THEM.
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I had one of my young cadets do a full talk through of how he’s using CAD and our 3D printer to produce aerodrynamic models and test them.
Of course, all funded by us.
We definitely need a way to align and fund this centrally.
But the cadets love it.
Also trying to standardise longer-term flight sim development so we deliver on our core role of fostering a practical interest in aviation.
I’d tough though, because we provide so much and it’s difficult to doing even half of it justice.
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This is good news, isn’t it?
I’ve been lurking for a while now, trying to take the pulse of the organisation with a view to volunteering, but not until I got the impression that it would be worthwhile - that my time would be appropriately valued and put to good use.
Forgive me for saying so but the impression I have at present is that of an organisation suffering from widespread disillusionment and high turnover, which is a difficult thing to commit to.
Could there be a turning point coming up? I wonder how my beloved 2166 sqdn are doing these days.
Often service users are not the best people to make strategic decisions about a given service. In this case, everything we do should certainly be for the benefit of the cadets. But the cadets themselves are not in the best position to dictate the vision and mission.
If anything, ex- cadets with a few years real life experience are likely best suited.
But it’s sort of beside the point.
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Like it used to be. Doing stuff for the ATC was a three year posting. See FS McGavigan at ACTC at RAF Newton back in the day
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I think he is onside with what we do. There is a lot coming down from HM Gov and the RAF on what they want from the cadet forces and their agendas
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Exactly. So it would be imprudent to treat cadets as customers.
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Let’s suppose you ask the cadets and it turns out they don’t like drill, discipline, uniform inspections, etc. You’ve just fundamentally changed the ethos of the organization, lost its purpose and likely MOD sponsorship, and turned it into an irrelevant youth club. Well done.
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This is closer, but it really depends.
Ultimately, with this so-called change to a war footing, it’s more likely that Whitehall will view RAFAC as now being more akin to the former ADCC, preparing young people for potential military service and providing some of the necessary training materials - a viewpoint that makes sense with some contemporary context.
In that scenario, the vision & mission are best set by senior military leaders, with experienced cadet leaders (preferably veterans, as they’ll best understand the overlap) determining how to achieve the mission through the objectives and tactics they’ll deploy to do so.
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The main problem will also be shortage of CFAV, unless we either change the model or increase numbers you are struggling to do much else other than on squadron activities. You have a few potential ways of going about this especially as they want to put more emphasis on STEM, it would make sense that schools are doing this, although mostly covered there with the basic in subject, could it be an option for some gaps and potentially more apprenticeships in STEM related areas to be introduced, that way the learning is there but you are cutting out the uniformed element which isn’t to everyone’s liking.
I don’t know if this would work but could a different model work for a squadron to be an “area hub” and take a proactive approach in liaising with a set number of state schools. It would take a lot of work to align on the RFCA/AFC model but potentially you could do you “STEM CADETS” stuff in an after school club ran by teachers of said school say 3-4pm or it could even change the school timings, that say every Wednesday between 2-3pm is sports or STEM and then the individual cadet could join in on an uniformed night one night a week at a RAFAC or ACF squadron, learning the military side of things and other activities such as First Aid, shooting, leadership etc. The Squadron’s could parade either once or twice a week depending on requirements, if its space that is at premium, it could be split in 2 parade nights with the schools.
With fire regs if we had the increase of cadets that they are saying, we would “outgrow” our building by roughly 15 cadets if we ever had a full turn out taking us over our full capacity (75), we would also need to increase the staff team by at least 4 , as we have 5 staff (4 + comes when he is available/“booked in advance” CI) .Although it is highly unlikely we would have a fully booked squadron trip in the above scenario of having circa 90 cadets and 9 staff we would need to take 2 coaches if going anywhere.
Personally the plan should be on what does the CFAV model look like first before pressing on with cadet recruitment
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I have noted a slight uptick in marketing materials being posted in Linkedin and Facebook RAFAC channels. They do seem more concentrated recently so they are certainly making an attempt.
My first response was to come here and see what’s actually happening…and then hold off a bit!