Hi , does anyone know what gold courses will be happening this year and which ones have been cancelled ?
Tia
Gold courses in a particular subject area or just all Gold courses?
As far as I’m aware Gold leadership is not on as i have been trying to find info on it for ages but to no avail. I believe it’s due to the new PTS and radio/cyber merge so probably no Gold this year
As far as I’m aware there is a new gold leadership course being ran in August which is on cadet portal now. IFA is usually a region ran course so it would be dependent on where you are. It’s dependent on wing for gold road marching as well.
Not sure if deadline has already passed but Gold Cyber too
Yeah they passed about 2 weeks ago and selections are meant to go out soon.
Heard a few days ago that a dictate from the Ivory Towers is shortly being issued that says ALL Blue training MUST be delivered at Squadron level, ALL Bronze at Wing, ALL Silver at Region and ALL Gold at Corps level.
This seems counterintuitive to impose restrictions especially as our WTO told us a few weeks ago that the intention is many Gold courses will be devolved to Regions (some are already be run by Region eg First Aid) and Silver can be done by Wings.
Somewhere people are either not talking to each other before making decisions or very different interpretations are being made of policy. End result confusion, rumours and variations across the organisation. So pretty much nothing has/will change there then
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I have always been under the impression that this was the intent of the PTS
I also though this was the case
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I was under the impression that
Blue, Sqn
Bronze, sector
Silver, Wing
Gold Region/Corps depending on activity
What normally happens;
Blue, No qualified or authorised staff at Sqn level, bumped up to Sector, sometimes no staff at sector also so bumped up to wing.
Bronze, as above for sector level.
Silver, Wing, but not many silver activates being run because of a lack of blue and bronze qualified cadets.
Gold, depending on SME level of commitment at Rgn or Corps level and access to accommodation/DTE. Getting staff for regional events can be difficult. Most regions camps end up offering lower levels due to the lack of cadets with higher badges.
Also much depends on CFAV SME at each level. I have seen lots of good training and events with buy in from CFAV and the CoC going on out there but also there are empire builders and blockers putting local rules making organising activities difficult.
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I can understand their logic, but it seems silly to limit lower levels if they have the capability to deliver higher courses.
I suppose it depends what they mean with “delivered by…”. If a squadron has the instructors to run a bronze course, would inviting the wing be enough or would it need to be led by the wing SME and hosted at an accessible location for most of the wing?
Abd how would a Region deliver without assistance from Wings/Squadrons! Regions have even more limited staff than Wings!
The MUST statements are pretty strong here and very inflexible. Surely they mean “should ideally be…”
For example, Blue RM in my neck of the woods is always delivered at wing level due to the lack of instructors. How would one do blue flying on squadron, issue us each a Tutor?!
Yes?
althogh drone wings could be delivered at sqn, eventually…
Yes as long as the Wing SME is kept in the loop.
Ideally they should be consulted at the planning phase so it can link into the Wing plan (for things such as signing off new staff).
Speaking personally, I’d love it if Squadrons offered to help out in my AOR!
I know that’s acceptable now, but if what was said above is true, then I wonder if that will still be the case. That’s what I was getting at. The devil is gonna be in the details.
Talking with a friend who helps with both Wing & Regional courses, she suspects it’s more about funding and ability to claim allowances than actually who teaches what. So any blue activity entities no remuneration, Bronze if delivered at Sqn/sector/wing CFAV may claim (if given sufficient available days), and so on, but if a region ran a bronze course or Corps ran a Silver course it would be for free and staff doing it for the love of furthering cadet experience. If true then it sounds less restrictive than I’d originally thought.
Probably a cross over with the CACE thread.
Not sure to be honest. It’d probably need to be set up on SMS by Wing with the Squadron person as activity IC and the SME counter signing/approving.