Others believe that cadets give enough through the ATC that some of their activities should count for this additional award.
Firstly I am totally of this school of thought! If the DofE Participant is already doing something above that of their friends then why not use this to their advantage? There is a very good reason why the ATC activities work so well with the various levels of the DofE!
For those that don’t know I’ve significant experience in running DofE both within the ATC and as part of my day job working for one of the biggest AAPs.
In terms of recognition by employers and higher education establishments there is an interesting article in tes HERE
But it got me thinking, how do these other units do it?
I’ve approached my answer based on the four (five at Gold Level) Sections of the DofE and how I see they “best fit” within ATC Squadron “life”. I’ve kept my answer limited to activities MOST units have access to! Of course the participant may choose other activities!
[size=5]SKILL[/size]
This section is about developing participant’s personal interests of which the ATC is one! It is also in my opinion the easiest section for a participant to complete due to the fact that as part of our classification training syllabus we offer lessons in Aeronautics! If the participant decides that is the skill they want to use then I’d suggest it fits nicely like this (remembering the timescales for the levels!)
[ul]
[li]Bronze Level – Leading Cadet[/li]
[li]Silver Level – Senior Cadet[/li]
[li]Gold Level – Master Air Cadet[/li]
[/ul]
In addition to Aeronautics there is a huge array of activities we do as part of routine Squadron activities which will satisfy the needs of the skills section
Examples are:
[ul]
[li]Ceremonial Drill[/li]
[li]Electronics[/li]
[li]Rocket Making[/li]
[li]Playing in a Band[/li]
[li]Flying[/li]
[li]Gliding[/li]
[li]Marksmanship[/li]
[li]Aircraft Recognition[/li]
[/ul]
So in summary the skill section is very simple to achieve with minimal alteration to your training programme (assuming you’re an active Sqn!).
[size=5]VOLUNTEERING[/size]
This is the section that is about giving time to “help people, the community or society, the environment or animals.” For participants within the ATC it’s always the section I find the most tricky to facilitate for a large number of participants.
Volunteering Activities come under the following sections:
[ul]
[li]Helping People[/li]
[li]Community action & raising awareness[/li]
[li]Working with the environment or animals[/li]
[li]Helping a charity or community organisation[/li]
[li]Coaching, teaching and leadership[/li]
[/ul]
Within the coaching, teaching and leadership section is the heading “Leading a voluntary organisation group” and the subheading “Air Training Corps”. It is clear that as an NCO within the ATC that you would probably be asked to lead a group, be that a flight within a Squadron, the Supply team, perhaps even the team of cadets tasked with running the canteen. All of these are valid volunteering activities and would count for the participant leading the team! These are all suitable, I would suggest for Silver & Gold participants!
In addition for those Silver & Gold Participants who are NCOs they may want to consider “DofE Leadership” as their chosen volunteering activity with suggested activities as helping other participants complete eDofE, running the skills section, if they’re teaching one of the activities listed in the section on skills etc.
The time consuming part comes when you have a large Squadron with 20+ Bronze participants because it’s clear that not all 20 can run the canteen for 3 months! There are a few ways you can approach this as a leader
Option 1. Get all your participants to seek Volunteering outside of the ATC. They could be doing activities such as helping at the local old people’s home, in a charity shop, at the local pet rescue centre. These are all valid activities and the participants will enjoy them I’m sure but IMHO as a DofE leader on a Sqn it’s difficult to get assessors reports back along with good evidence for eDofE, particularly from Bronze participants!
Option 2. Innovate! If you’re an active Squadron then you’re probably doing something which could, with a tweak satisfy the requirements of this section. You’re probably involved in a community project or helping the service charities. The definitive list of volunteering activities is HERE
On my unit we’ve taken over the maintenance of the local war graves and during the summer months we clean them, inform CWGC of any damaged ones and we’ve started this last year to photograph them. Other Squadrons have affiliations with a number of service charities and hold regular collections throughout the year to fit within the volunteering section (remember the collections don’t all need to be for one charity!!)
So for example the participants could collect for RAFA in September & October and RBL in November! If they were doing Volunteering for 3 months at Bronze Level!
I think if you can get engaged with a local project, or establish a new one then you have a sure-fire way of offering a volunteering opportunity and doing something worthwhile for your entire Squadron! That’s why we did!!
In addition to bigger projects some other options I’ve used are:
Promotion & PR. Helping to run the website and/or social media streams to advertise the Sqn
Administration. Assisting Sqn Adj with their duties.
Music Tuition. Teaching in the Sqn Band.
[size=5]PHYSICAL[/size]
Is basically a sport or fitness activity that the participant needs to undertake for the required period of time. Pretty simple to facilitate IMHO and participants usually fall into two categories
[ul]
[li]Those that play sport only at school[/li]
[li]Those that are part of a sporting team/club[/li]
[/ul]
Category two is the easiest to facilitate as the Sqn DofE Officer as your participants are probably doing sport regularly enough outside of school time to count that as their physical section! Getting their assessors report back can sometimes be a bit of a pain though but the full list of permitted activities is HERE
Those cadets who only do sport as part of PE or during their time on Squadron will require some further help in getting them through this section. You can of course run the “physical achievement” activity over a period of time and that would suffice. Just pencil in enough sessions into your programme and make sure the participants turn up! I’ve done this for years and TBH it has become stale so I’ve thought about some ideas which would fit into a Squadron training programme but do rely on qualified staff.
[ul]
[li]Archery – I hear you’re getting some staff qualified soon![/li]
[li]Canoeing – If you’ve qualified staff. IRC you should be looking at working towards the next star level on the BCU syllabus![/li]
[li]Climbing – Learning the required techniques (perhaps through the NICAS http://www.nicas.co.uk/ scheme – two birds one stone and all that![/li]
[li]Orienteering – Improving your navigation and fitness on a number of courses![/li]
[/ul]
[size=5]EXPEDITION[/size]
The section that (wrongly?) gets the most focus for DofE within the ATC and does rely on you having access to the relevant qualified staff (BEL, ML(S), WGL). I’ve been running expeditions for 10+ years and this model is my “blue-sky” suggestion
Training can be included as a bolt on to Basic Nav at leading level building on IET but I’d suggest a two day training weekend at Sqn working on all aspects of the DofE’s Expedition Framework for the relevant level with a day of route planning between the practice and qualifying expeditions. Another option to consider is finishing your practice expedition at YHA (or similar) and using a classroom there the next day for route planning!
Bronze Level. Expeditions run at Sqn level by BEL qualified staff for all eligible candidates. Will take no more than 4 expeds spread throughout the year with 2 or 3 BEL Staff.
Silver Level. Either run at Sqn or sector level pooling the qualified staff with support from the Wing AT Team, most Sqns will probably have 2-3 teams at the most for silver. Pooling helps support smaller units who would only have 2 – 5 participants!
Gold Level. Run by the Wing AT Team in an “open expedition” style. Enrolment Evening, Two day training weekend, four day practice (including route planning day) and qualifying expedition Easy!
[size=5]eDofE – Embrace it!!![/size]
As with all things you need to allow time in your training programme to facilitate it. Regular informal “eDofE Nights” where the Sqn is open to allow updates as its time consuming! In my experience Bronze Participants need more hand holding than Silvers & Golds. Get different staff set up as leaders on the system so that one person isn’t approving all the evidence as it can be a big job looking at 20 – 30 pieces of evidence. Also make sure you photograph EVERYTHING and upload pictures directly to eDofE or onto your website/facebook group so the participants can use them as evidence!
I think that’s it for now…… Sorry for the epic post!