Quick question can JNCO courses be run at squadron level like the MOI courses. As we have a batch of new JNCOs who need to do courses but the next weekend is 2 months away with no guarantee of places on the course.
There are no set requirements for the content of a JNCO course, unlike others, as it is not a formal qualification as such. Therefore youāre free to run as you wish, however it may be beneficial to cadets to be tested by wing-level staff whom they are not familiar with, to see how they cope outside of their comfort zone. Saying that I ran a JNCO course at my squadron a few months ago and it went down a treat. Itās all about planning.
ACTO07 (specifically annex b) states otherwise.
Most wings have a structure in place to deliver courses. Ensure you are not stepping on heels. Some wings also have local promotion eligibility criteria based around Wing run NCO courses
However, thereās no set Pre-JNCO Course courseā¦
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True thatā¦for now
Complete with brassard badge.
@Caolan753, thereās nothing wrong with running something along the lines of an NCO course as a prepper - to help (hopefully) boost performance on a proper course, fill the gap if they donāt get places this time, and you can tailor bits for your unit as well.
My advice is check what the required prior knowledge and competencies are for the Wing course, train to those, and add extras as necessary for what you need.
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We as a wing have a cadet development course/workbook thatās a bridging course between first class classification and further knowledge required to be a Cpl.
If delivered and completed correctly it works a treat!
This runs along side blue leadership
Forgive meā¦ thatās what I meant. Rebrand JNCO as P-JNCO or other āleadership development courseā and youāre sorted.
Iām quite happy to share the contents of our cadet development course if itās of any use as a base to build up from
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Any chance I could get a copy as well Alex ?
or post it to the drive? 
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Moi aussi svp
ā¦Or indeed a post-NCO course.
I donāt feel that there is sufficient time to cover everything which I think would be of benefit to an NCO in a two day course so I run additional training to take my guys from āsatisfying the Wing course requirementsā to āactually being an effective NCOā.
The courses cover a lot of theory - Limits of authority, āgetting things doneā (SMEAC & PICSIE), &c.
I then train them in many of the more practical aspects i.e. What are they actually going to be doing as a JNCO/SNCO.
Things like extraction of orders. Not in a full-on battle sense, but in the same vein. During blue badge leadership and the JNCO course they are used to being given a āstandardā individual briefing in SMEAC form and simply reiterating that to their teamā¦ In the real world that rarely happens. They need to be able to extract their own āmissionā from a bigger plan and create their briefing accordingly.
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Yet Acp 20 clearly states an OC can promote up to the Rank of FS. With recommendations only on classification level required.
Yet again. A Wing adding more bureaucracy and red tape into the system.
Wing nco courses and training is great. Except when you have an exceptional candidate who for whatever reason (weekend commitments) cannot make the training or assessment days.
Then the system works against them. What then. How do you figure that?
Hardly seems inclusiveā¦
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At the end of he day it comes down to commitment & priorities, if they canāt take 1 weekend off of there other commitment to do an NCO Course then surely thatās the choice of the individual.
I have a fairly robust set of essential criteria before I will consider a Cadet for promotion, I then also have written my own policy with flexibility in case I need it. (I as the Officer running the selection process can on a case by case basis provide exemptions for a maximum of 1 of my essential criteria).
As long as what is expected is very clear and open itās fair for all.
TBH ādevelopmentā of cadets should be at sqn and ongoing at the sqn and just use the Wing things for consolidation, if they fit into peopleās schedules, not the be all and end all. The Wing courses are IMO far too short for anything more. I donāt get the idea of a lack of commitment if they canāt go on a Wing NCO course, itās not mandatory like things staff have to do are made. Cadetās do this like we do as a āhobbyā and shouldnāt have expectations to do anything more than have a good time. Wings playing silly sods making them compulsory should be told get a life. If a sqn commander or the sqn staff donāt know their cadets and or able to bring them on, then maybe they arenāt the right people.
I do wonder what went wrong in the ATC that we now seemingly have to have these courses? Being an NCO was passed āfather to sonā by generations of NCOs and , then at some point in the last 10-15 years something went badly awry and now we subject cadets to courses, the content of which should be done on sqns on a trickle basis. We have cadets do parade night duties, shadowing NCOs from almost day one and doing basic drill movements shadowed by me or the senior adult SNCO after 6-9 months.
I would proffer there is a strong correlation with the advent of the ATCās adult SNCO structure and these cadet courses are for their benefit more so than cadets.
I accept that these views wonāt be widely liked.
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I agree with Teflon here. We do most of our NCO training on the contingent. When cadets go on the TEST organised JNCO/SNCO courses Iāve not really noticed any difference from the cadets who do the in house training
In my wing, although there is some training on NCO courses, they are also primarily an assessment and external feedback course for the COās.
Most training happens on squadron.
I think the reason for all the extra courses is to justify the existence of the high number of Wing Appointments we seem to have floating around, and that is when Sqns remain short staffed.
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