[quote=“5432golf” post=3471]
Best one - Jonny cadet can’t attend IACE interview because of revision.[/quote]
Sorry come again!! the ideal way to sign off after their exams, what is that an hour or 2, go to the interview and then spend 2 hours less on the xbox, some have no idea what these opportunity’s are and it saddens me
as someone who is familiar with the mondern day interview process i can agree with all that has been said.
during the recent resession years (a few yrs ago) i was made redundant and was then looking for employment. of all the interviews i had (9 from 7 companies) before a job offer, i was not asked about my education, not even my university course, but my personal experiences in the industry.
i had less than 3 years experience but it was very much the experience, skills, roles and responsibilities i had in three previous roles (inc a year in industry as part of my sandwich year at uni) that i was often questioned about before the questions moved on to personal interest, such as my invovement in Cadets.
having graduated in 2007 i would agree that the “value” of a qualification has an “expiry” of a few years given i was asked very little, if anything about my degree, the subjects covered or areas i enjoyed three years after graduation
I wholeheartedly agree RE qualification shelf life. BUT, the pressure from schools (and to some extend parents) is that qualifications have a more immediate “gateway” appeal -
you can’t do sixth form unless you have 5 GCSEs A-C (plus, in some schools, B’s in the subjects you want to study)
you can’t do BTEC L3 unless you have 5 GCSEs A-C
you can’t do BTEC L2 unless you have 4 GCSEs D
you can’t do BTEC L1 unless you have 2 GCSEs E
Once you’re through the door of sixth form/college/apprenticeship/employment then your GCSEs (and subsequently A levels, BTEC diplomas, HND, HNC, BSc, ISPN) have already moved you up the ladder and seem to rarely be looked upon. The more GCSEs you get, the more opportunities open their doors. So, for the immediate time whilst that qualification is still valid, it’s (supposed) to be the most important “motivator and enabler” for the young peeps.
So, on one hand, schools and parents claim it to be for the “greater good” (whilst parents probably believe this, we all know that schools know it’s for league tables!). BUT, on the otherhand we - and most employers - know that its the other hobbies and interests that make a person interesting - not their generic experience of a watered down educational system.
Sigh. When will they learn there is a balance to be had… 
Sorry Johnny you’ve missed out on the chance of a lifetime…[/quote]
Ha! My view exactly. It genuinely amuses me that cadets these days seem a bit miffed when the world won’t fit around their lives.[/quote]
You saw my posts in Grinds my Gears thread! :mad:
Totally agree.
We have to accept what we are told and respect it. As I said, short of physically go round their houses with something urgent, foregoing the e-options, to check up on them, what do you do. And then quite how you deal with or what you do if you disturb game playing, TV or being round their mates, rather than being at home revising/doing ‘homework’, is another matter.
From the experience from my own kids schooling, the youngsters are put under enormous pressure by the schools to perform to appease the school’s desire to improve or maintain their league table position. As a parent, parents’ evening from the 3rd year onward you are told effectively if your child doesn’t do this and that, meaning homework/coursework then they are going to fail their exams, and, although not said out loud the implication is they will end up on the dole and never get a job. As a result of this ‘fear’ a lot parents will prevent their children going out to things like after school activities to stop their future being potentially compromised by not having exam passes. The same lie IMO is pushed about term time holidays, something we no longer have to worry about.
On a similar line, how many have cadets leave due to the pressure of school/college work and they can’t fit Air Cadets in anymore?
I’ve certainly seen an uptake in the “pressure of school work” excuse being rolled out of late. 20 years ago we’d have 8 or so cadets staying on for the full term of 20, with 1 or 2 CWOs staying until 22. 10 years ago it was closer to 3 or 4. And now we’re down to 1 or 2.
The peak “drop out” was normally those who did the summer after their GCSEs with us, then hit A levels and folded. Even this has shifted forwards, with many going on “exam leave” and simply not coming back.
I hope this is a common trend across all squadrons rather than something specific to us!
I don’t think I took any time off during my GCSE’s.
I had more difficulty with the system than most due to moving schools between year 10 and 11 and the previous school not sending on my coursework/modular exam results.
My two evenings and various weekends at ATC didn’t cause any problems.
In fact I ditched two subjects in year 11 because I wasn’t interested in staying after school on ATC nights to re-do the coursework that hadn’t arrived. I still came out with 7 good grades which, after I’d moved on and studied engineering, have never been remotely important since.
I can’t see the point in taking 14 odd GCSEs!? Especially when doing so apparently puts so much pressure on youngsters.
Those of us who’ve been in the world a bit longer than our cadets know that the truth is that unless you fail them, GCSEs really don’t matter. They are purely a ‘gateway’, so where is the sense in investing so much time and effort in 14,15,16 GCSEs (which will all be forgotten in a flash) when all you really need are half that.
Batfink I dont think your experiences are uncommon.
And WDI I fully agree, 14/15/16 GCSEs are completely pointless and I can only think the pressure comes from schools’ focus on league tables and parents’ capitulation to schools pressure and scaremongering.
The real shame is that the life experience the ATC can give (especially post-16) would make them much more “sellable” as potential employees than a handful of tin-pot GCSEs.
Absolutely!
Also, if we continue to focus for a moment on ‘qualifications’…
When we are moving further into the BTEC sphere and more cadets are gaining the point equivalent of multiple GCSEs for little extra work than simply attending ATC, it further negates the point of studying all these extra subjects at school.
I’m not sure I could even think of 14 subjects I’d want to study at GCSE, all at once.
With the possible exception of the mechanical engineering (which naturally requires facilities which are beyond my personal budget) I’ve done far more learning off my own back since leaving education than I ever got while I was there.
I expect my cadets to turn up regardless of exam revision. My ACF unit only parades once a week - if you can’t fit it in then you are doing something wrong. I also firmly believe that it is important to have relaxation time mixed in with revision.
I would understand a cadet not wanting to attend if they had an exam the next day and wanted an early night.
Also, there is more to life than GCSEs!
We all know that and parents know that in their heart of hearts, but trying to convince a teenager who’s been inundated with an unless you pass loads of exams you’re never going to get a job message for many years, is another matter.
The unfortunate thing is what we offer is the untangible but more important personal profile part of a CV, but as education establishments can’t offer much in this area they don’t, seemingly, promote it.
I didn’t think we were alone in the “pressure of schoolwork” leavers. Pretty much as BF this has become increasingly the case over the last 20 years. The time we tend to lose them is for those in year 11 from about Christmas before the main exams to the first term and half of 6th Form. Once they get through the latter period they settle down and start managing their lives. IIRC there was an upsurge when AS were introduced, so if they binned them it wouldn’t be a loss.
I would tend to agree, but I wouldn’t want to penalise cadets in any way if their parents feel differently.