… are senior officers within the Corps getting younger and have less experience.
I deal quite regularly with ATC Wings and find more and more senior officers are younger and younger. Several have no experience as Sqn Commanders.
Is the Corps struggling for experienced staff or is it just a new phase that it is going through
There’s been a sea change in getting some senior officers in who will graft rather than be promoted because they’re old and crusty like we used to see when we were younger. Also, there’s been a haemorrhage of longer serving staff that no one wants to talk about.
I suppose you’re right.
In my current role, there is no opportunity for promotion.
The only thing which is a bit tongue in cheek is when they tell you how things should be done when they’ve no experience of it themselves!
The fact they are younger just means you are getting older 
.
The fact they are younger is many older staff aren’t interested in Wing roles. I don’t know if our wing is typical but there does seem to be a lot of back stabbing, in-fighting and so on, which you don’t need. We’ve got some older ones who love their rank, but a lot go onto wing as they’ve been forced and look to get off asap, we’ve had a few over the years do the NEP thang to get away from it.
The younger ones being a little naïve jump at the chance to go onto wing as they feel they have something to prove.
Thanks for that Teflon!
Only growing old is compulsory… growing up is an option!
I think it could be the fact that the older Officers have seen what it was like when there want so much red tape.
Personally, I’m not frightened by change as long as the correct training and guidance is given.
I can think of at least 8 now senior officers who were cadets when I was commissioned. Good on them though for achieving what they have, but they are single or have no kids which we all know takes up a massive part of our lives.
Sadly, some are moving into roles as there is no one else to take up the job. Lack of experience can only lead to failure unless you have the correct guidance to nudge you in the right direction.
I’m well past the worrying about getting older bit and choose to do it as disgracefully as I can.
I like my mum and dad who say things that leave the kids (bought up on a diet of PC BS) saying nan and granddad can’t say that, guess what they can and will and don’t dare criticise them.
The worrying thing we have on our wing is that the younger ones don’t even go onto wing with the experience of running a squadron or if they do it has been little more than a year or two. I refused to speak with one of the deputy WSOs we had, as how they felt they had the audacity to come and speak to me about running a squadron when their experience in the Corps was in total less than the time I’d been running squadrons by a few years, baffled me.
I noticed that a proactive Social Media using OC Wing has completed 20 years commissioned service in the VRT
So you may have a point…
ha ha.
I beat him by a year!
I met him at Cranditz for a course. He’s a top bloke.
Surely whether or not a lack of experience as an OC is detrimental depends on which role they’re in? A SQEP who is motivated is far more valuable in some roles than someone who took a job just for the sake of progression…
Some reasonable Sqn experience I admit would be beneficial regardless - having been Adj, or Training Officer as opposed to simply a Sqn Officer, perhaps. But, to me, knowledge and work ethic are vital in these roles and my experience is that younger staff still have a lot more energy than some “old hands”.
But energy needs to be channelled.
I’ve always enjoyed watching graduates at work who run around like puppies, until they find they aren’t getting anymore done than the rest of us, but are getting burnt out.
The same applies to young / newbie staff. There’s one near to us, he runs around like a lunatic doing things for people and thinks everyone thinks he is wonderful. He’s done a couple of things for us, his offer, which is fine in my book as it means I/we don’t have to. I will always take full advantage of any opportunity like that.
But he is single (never had a girlfriend or boyfriend, his dad told me that) and has a job where he works from home, so plenty of time to kill.