I’ve recently moved back into (temporary!) command of a Squadron, thats in need of a bit of a rebuild and renovation.
As part of that I have successfully attracted 6 to 8 potential members of staff. My issue is now what to do to keep / retain them.
I’ve started by asking them to come down once a week so we can concentrate on them rather than abandon them in the corner of the office, whilst still trying to run a Squadron for the cadets.
However the question is what exactly to do with them. Our Wing runs BASIC as a course, which they will all go on eventually. I’m planning to run a mini basic now that introduces them to the Corps, the standards and behaviours required and the like, before we set them loose shadowing various members of staff on the unit, and then get them interviewed cleared etc.
I am hoping this will aid our retention and future employment of these folks!
Does anyone do things like this at the moment? What do you teach them?
What sort of things should we be including or would you have wanted to know at the start?
Although this is what i have done within the ACF, i believe this may come in useful (with the obvious amendments for the ATC)
We did a Familiarization and Assessment Weekend to begin our training, it was an introduction to everything in the ACF. this was done over 14 hours. so could be adapted easily.
Individual Introductions ‘informal ice-breakers’
Introductory Brief
Commandant’s Welcome and Introduction to the ACF
Introduction to ACF Values & Standards and Duty of Care
Individual Presentations briefing
Introduction to Roles, Responsibilities, Guidelines and Safety
Overview of ACF courses and adult instructor progression
Introduction to Working with Cadets and overview of Cadet Activities including command tasks
Introduction to Cadet Activities - Turnout and Drill
Introduction to Cadet Activities - Admin in the Field
Introduction to Field Shelters
Introduction to Cooking in the Field
Introduction to Cadet Activities - Shooting in the ACF
Training Safety Exercise
Teamwork Tasks
Individual Presentations
Discussion group
Comprehension Exercise
Commandant’s Interviews
Assessment Board Initial Meeting
End of Package Evaluation
De-Brief/ Closing Remarks
Assessment Board Final Meeting
OPTIONAL – Newly appointed PI to chat to candidates
In an informal/social setting.
End of package review (Open Forum)
It was structured around powerpoint presentations, plus some more “fun” stuff. I found it an excellent way of finding out exactly what was expected of me and they also got to watch me perform to see if i was up to standard. But i have to say that this is for training to become an Sgt Instructor, not sure if you would want to change it at all for CI’s
I give new CIs what is essentially the basic cadet ATC talk, history (with a local spin) and organisation and how we fit into the RAF (or maybe now how the RAF fits into the ATC!). They get the ACP 4 CP/Safeguarding and ACP1 booklet and spiel before the BASIC.
I also do a chat with me and the TO as to what our year generally entails and what subjects they may be interested in and or what they feel they can bring to make life a little more interesting for them and the cadets. Ii depends what you mean by shadowing. As there is normally only one at a time, easier just to sit down with a brew.
As for retention, who knows. The majority of retention issues revolve around one or combination of : courses being promised and not delivered; courses being binned; application paperwork getting ‘lost’ and personality clashes, none of which we at sqn level have very much control over. I’m not getting into counselling or acting as the middle man if staff aren’t getting on and if its me they don’t like, well can’t please 'em all. I like to think we’re all grown-ups and do this for altruistic reasons and not for personal ‘gain’, plus we’re able to put up with pillocks, as they are everywhere.
Can I just ask, what is BASIC? I have seen it in a few threads and guess if it is a pneumonic that it has some meaning to being some form of basic training. Could anyone please extrapolate?
Just to give an update on our efforts with this. All 4 are still with us, have passed their WSO ‘filter’ interview and are filling out the application forms. This week and next will see them shadowing existing staff ansd then we have a staff meeting scheduled where we will be agreeing and allocating roles and targets for the coming year.
They are booked on a Wing Level BASIC course in January.
It may be only simple stuff, but It feels like it has worked much better than previous attempts to bring staff into the organisation.
Heres hoping they stick around and really get into things as a result!