That may have been me in Akrotiri having to reign in a 19 year old acting like a prat. He went off crying to his OC (who was on the camp) about how I wasn’t a proper CWO. OC told him to basically up his game.
By the end of camp we were good friends and still stay in touch.
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Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure there are plenty of 19 year old ‘prat’ FS’s in the ATC, and plenty of capable 17yo CWOs in CCF. My point is mainly just equalising the eligibility for rank.
Not sure if that’s easier, or better done by the ATC shifting or the CCF shifting its regs, but rank is only really credible in my view if there is that equality of opportunity there. Lest it appears like it’s just faster promotion for the CCF kids at the expense of the equally capable ones in the ATC.
I agree. If you bring the limit to 18 in CCF you’ll be killing the rank off in most contingents. Since the LASER review there’s not been any justification in my mind for keeping the age limit in ATC. I could just about be on board with reducing it to 17 but really, if you are good enough then you should get the rank regardless of age.
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It can only go one way as, depending when their birthday is, a CCF cadet might turn 18 within weeks of leaving school: whereas an 18yo ATC cadet still has two years.
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As age is a protected characteristic I can’t see the justification for marking age a factor for promotion to CWO.
If anything the rank of CWO is more exclusive in the CCF as its very rare to have more than one CWO per academic year.
In the ATC, a Sqn can have multiple CWOs per Sqn regardless (provided the overall wing establishment isn’t exceeded).
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Hadn’t even thought of that!
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Oh be quiet protected characteristic. We don’t allow cadets to join till year 8 (age based), fly until 13 and they have to leave at 18 / 20 - these are all age based restrictions on the RAFAC - otherwise we’d have an organisation of 43,000 cadets aged from 5-99
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You can restrict age for legal & health & safety reasons & there is some education restrictions based around age.
However these exceptions do not apply to the CWO rank because
- The rank is only age restricted in the ATC not the CCF.
- other cadet forces promote to a equivalent level in rank without age restriction.
- it is the only rank that is age restricted.
I would suggest as such it would be challengeable.
So if you have a 17 year old Cadet FS who you think can do the roles I would suggest putting in for it & then challenge for age discrimination if not permitted.
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Surely you could have an awkward WSO/WC who would just dredge this Cdt FS through the mud to justify their rejection to CWO for any other reason but age.
And the danger is, once they’ve taken that position, it would then be difficult to promote after the 18th birthday.