Anyone seen the latest shooting briefing note on Bader’s shooting portal?
“Courses will no longer be run centrally at Beckingham, but instead delivered on a
Regional basis, in the same way as the courses for the other Shooting qualifications. It is
also anticipated that course delivery will return to a two-weekend format, rather than the five
day continuous course.
3. As there is a significant amount of preparation required for these changes, there will
be no RAFAC run courses until the latter part of the 18-19 Training year at the earliest. In
the interim, those wishing to attend SAAI training can apply (via the Shooting Portal) to
attend courses at CTC Frimley Park. CTC will not accept applications directly.”
No in house courses for the next year? What has brought this on? I did my course a few years ago a Beckingham and it was still hands down the best course I have ever been on.
This is a good thing I think, moving back to Weekend Courses in a regional location as the biggest complaint is the need to take time off work and travel to Beckingham for this course.
I hope that the course continues to be delivered by the SAAT/CTT so that SATTs can continue their focus on delivery of Range Management Courses, as I agree that the SAAI Course I did with CTT/SAAT (2 weekend Regional) was the best shooting course I’ve had.
it’s a 6 month pause for Skill At Arms Instructor courses that are run by RAFAC, other courses are still available. the Training Year 18-19 started on 1 April 18 and concludes on 31 March 19
I’d welcome that if the SATTs are at the same standard, regional training will save my staff lots of time and travelling but Frimley is even further away.
I hope there is no pause, we are struggling for qual’d staff as it is
If it means more courses and flexible options good.
But previously they ran too few courses, which considering it’s all they are there to do and the people going there are only really interested in shooting, is not really acceptable.
It only makes more sense if there is no delay or reduction in spaces and training standards are kept as high - I doubt my local SATT could deliver this to the same level, especially with the other courses they have to do. Has anyone successfully applied for a place at Frimley?
I might appear to be a bit dim here but what ‘significant amount of preparation’ does there need to be when converting a continuous course into a 2-weekend one? The only issue I can see is the booking of suitable training facilities but apart from that…
You probably need to tweak the course content somewhat, if it’s like the RCO Course they will be sending you back with homework. However hardly what I would call significant amounts of work.
The issue that may cause some delay is making sure that instructors are up to speed with the course folder content and well drilled in the delivery of the relevant training points and how that splits in to two weekends.
SAAT were very well drilled in what they delivered and for a SATT to deliver to a similar standard will take practice.
This model will allow Regional Commandants much more control for their SATTs to deliver a more rounded training package for personnel in the Regions. This year may be a bit disjointed but the coming years will no doubt encompass a better progression path for people to go from interested in shooting to being useful to being fully qualified.
A few RAF AC people have been to Frimley over the years with varied results.
It’s hard to practice delivery of SAAI with no access to weapons or suitable subjects. Most of the homework on the RCO courses is to produce a RAM which is individual and then to practice your delivery of briefs, even to a family member helps.
The reason SAAI was moved to 5 days was to reduce skill fade in between weekends. Everyone going home and life getting in the way meant people didn’t focus on what they needed to be practising.
This hits the nail on the head. This announcement wreaks of handbrake house making yet another u-turn.
Take a look below at the extract from 2015’s Shooting Review (specifically the last sentence), that reflected on the fact the CTT were delivering a good course (and turning out good instructors) because they only had one focus. I think they were (one of) the only elements of the Shooting landscape that came out of the review unscathed.
I sincerely hope there isn’t a delay in training CFAVs. As my Wing Shooting Officer continually bleats: It’s not a lack of range staff that hinders shooting, it’s a lack of [active] WIs.
I would imagine that they are referring to the preparation required to upskill the SATTs to a level where they can deliver a good course to the required standard.
Notwithstanding the fact that from what I hear the SATTs have improved a lot since a few years ago, they haven’t delivered these courses before and I suspect that the standard of instruction required is going to be a shock to the system for some of those “instructors”.
