Considering that most of the Training Syllabus isn’t really relevant, is woefully out of date and has no real point I would refrain from wasting too much time on the Syllabus lessons.
1 Like
Maybe it’s time to face the “Air Training” bit is too expensive and dangerous, compared to square bashing.
How much of the maths, physics and science is out of date? Piston engines and jet engines still work like they always have. I’ve yet to find another way to take a grid reference or use a compass and until the DofE say you can use GPS, “phones” et al, well still keep using paper maps and compasses. Perhaps the satellite/comms stuff is wanting, but I don’t know many who do satellites and the comms I have to admit IMO has been superseded by the generally more reliable mobile phones and distances achievable by something costing a tenner, opposed to specialist kit that is overly expensive for what it is and achieves little more than a couple of miles stand alone.
In my mind, I may have been referring to us as the “Adventure Training Corps” (I stress not in a public or Sqn facing way) for a little while. AT seems more accessible these days and ofc, it is what we 'Venture".
Regarding Syllabus training, on our Sqn we deliver teaching, check understanding throughout and when it comes to assessment if we’ve done a good job in teaching the cadets then they’ll be able to answer the question without the need for referral (hopefully), if not, then refer they may (IAW ACTO 20 Para 28, Sub Para C). To deny this is to perpetuate the issue of local policy adaptation which, as we all know, causes so many issues across the organisation.
Whilst I question the validity of such “open book qualifications” I appreciate that (outside of some specific requirements) life is relatively “open book” and as we provide training for both service and civilian life - the subject matter isn’t particularly relevant to the aspirations of some (dare I say most) of the cadets.
I feel that we are more in the business of teaching skills for life, enabling young people to overcome problems through teaching and, in due course, experience, that makes them more well rounded for the work place environment and hopefully, more likely to succeed in whatever path they choose to follow once they have left the RAFAC.
2 Likes
Many of our cadets rarely use google to find the answer. Many a time I’ve tried to use google and found a word doc or ppt which confuses me more when looking for an answer. Cadets know if they don’t understand a question to ask a staff member to explain it so they have a better understanding of what the answer could be. I would not put any of our cadets through a no google help situation. If any of the staff actually know the answer we will ask the cadet to explain why they think it’s a) b) or c) before giving them the nod. I refuse to just give them the answer as the classification system would be pointless and we could just hand out the badge after very little input from the cadet…in a nut shell
You have hit the nail on the head, what point is there of doing these exams?
A sense of achievement and progression.
1 Like
Yes, but not learnt anything. Althogh some are learning how to use a reference book. I had to show one whan an index was!
1 Like
Learning effective research skills is every bit as important about learning generic facts that they will seldom/never need to use.
This is a failure of the education system!
We give classification training to build a basic level of understanding of the environments we work around. Only occasionally does that trip into the arena of useful, practical knowledge. Exams are used to show progression through that arbitrary set of subjects and give some idea as to the experience of the cadet.
Anything we want expertise in is subject to extended training and testing external to the classification system. examples: Shooting, radio, first aid etc.
#SkillsforLife is already taken by Scouting 
@james_elliott
Not wanting to start a new thread for this but is there a problem with ultilearn/SMS at the moment? I’ve been adding new cadets ready for the start of school term and they are not getting an ultilearn login email and if I try to do a password reset with their number I get error 5.
I’ve had that problem in the past with a few. Needs a helpdesk ticket to create them manually.
Thanks have logged a request. Hopefully we’ll get a response in the next year which seems to be the standard turnaround. Was kinda just hoping it was a short term problem which would have an automatic resolution
Sounds like the account hasn’t generated.
I have a problem with the older PowerPoints being too uninformative. Its like they think we are qualified to teach the subject. Im not a college tutor. Just a person who is given a ‘book’ to read. Sometimes that evening. Sometimes I just jump that bit. As we dont have a search engine we can just ask. You can say to a cadet find out that bit later and come back next week with the answer. I have work and they have school. We forget! If they stated what they are going on about. I might understand it better. I have changed the ATC even the new one. As i feel it still misses things.
That’s intentional. The point of a good presentation is that it’s not meant to be a self-contained lesson with everything that anyone could want to know which can be delivered by someone with no idea of the subject - it’s meant to be a supporting aid to a lesson taught by someone who knows what they’re on about.
Instructor guides should help with some of the background, but nobody should expect to just open the materials from Ultilearn and be able to teach a complicated subject.
The idea is that staff need to learn the subject for themselves before teaching it. That’s what makes the difference between a good instructor and someone who just reads from a powerpoint slide.
The worst ‘death by powerpoint’ presentations, and the ones you seem to want, are the very thing we should be getting rid of.
5 Likes
I agree, but.
I feel there’s a lack of instructor guides for many subjects, which isn’t helpful if you’re starting from scratch.
There’s also a problem of the PowerPoint slides often lacking context - one or two have good presenter notes for each slide, but many don’t so you’re trying to work out what the presentation author was thinking with each slide, match that with the syllabus, and then actually deliver some content.
1 Like
[off topic]
Solution is to repurpose QAIC staff to run train the trainers for all staff instead of a handful of cadets
[/off topic]
4 Likes
they can do both 
1 Like
Indeed. As a whole we really need to focus more on staff training and in producing quality training materials for those staff to use.
There should be no reason why, having now become accustomed to using MS Teams, we can’t offer subject training remotely.
‘Got staff who want to learn “Jet Engine Propulsion” because it interests them and so that they can then go on to teach it? Easy… Join this virtual class teaching exactly that subject…’
4 Likes
It was easier for staff to learn subjects when we had the subject books / manuals. I’ve had a number of staff where I gave them books to read and exam papers to work through to understand the level the cadets needed to be at. The majority of these went to to become bloody good instructors.
However during the 00s there was a lot of noise about the books not being fit for purpose as they were out of date and the constant whine from HQAC that the paper exams were hard to produce due to a ‘creaking computer’ and people who had to mark hundreds of exam papers every year, but turned down offers of help. The biggest laugh was that very many of the questions on this creaking computer, appeared in the new exams, so it couldn’t have been that bad, just that the IT gurus at HQAC couldn’t be bothered.
As a result we ended up with Ultilearn that was initially pushed as an e-learning platform which is obviously wasn’t. It almost immediately became loaded with ppts that for all the world looked like they’d been done in 5 minutes by a 15 yo on work experience or so technical that you needed to be an expert to understand it. It was never tested in terms of cadets trying to access it on parade nights, to the point where we did Saturday mornings to do exams just so that they didn’t crash after a couple of questions. The ridiculousness of time limited passwords which we still have and results in the faff of changing passwords when cadets do exams.
I remember when we got it looking to see who else used it and wondering if they do it the same as us, or they have a much more user friendly version, as anyone involved in training in business would want something better than what we had.
I think we need to go back to having subject books printed for instructors to learn the subjects, supported like the old ACP 42 was with ACP42a a bank of questions to gauge the level of cadet understanding required.
4 Likes