Not unique - Police firearms liaison officer positions are advertised with a similar expectation - get an about to retire Police officer at a cheap price, topping up the pension. £28K for 37 hrs / week, that’s a flat rate of £14.44 / hr. Similar advert from 4 yrs ago was only £21.3K - full-time.
We’ve just recruited three, imagine my surprise when it was revealed the three successful candidates were recently retired officers.
Does HQAC stand for Highly Qualified At Cancellations
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Off topic - one of my shooting friends was looking at applying a little while ago - got told no chance, as he knew too much & might be biased…
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“But in order to do this, the organisation desperately needs more volunteers to help run its programmes and to help keep up with the growing demand.”
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For context, they introduced a new junior section, Squirrels, after lock down. So the numbers likely reflect that.
Also when I was helping with Scouts parents would put their kids down on the list very young (pre school wasn’t uncommon) and with more than one group.
Good to see they are growing though.
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When I was chairing a group we were told we couldn’t have waiting lists and had to expand to meet demand for places, or refer to another group with vacancies.
I’ll always let them know there is others but waiting lists are normal. I won’t take more than 12 on an intake because our MoI cadets run the intakes and anymore than 12 it’s not fair on their one.
Which does mean we end up with waiting lists (we do 2 intakes a year - sometimes we have small ones, but some are very large September already has 9 on the list, 3 are from April)
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Credit where credit’s due…!
Congratulations on running a popular, highly successful and presumably well organised unit! It’s comforting to see units not only with such popularity, but also the means (staff) to cope.
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Thank you - it’s the keeping them that’s important. I think the organisation does a fair job getting them through the door but if they’ve gotten it from anything other than local information managing expectations is so important that way they can enjoy it so much more.
All Sqns will have ups and downs, years when your tiny or years where your bursting at the seams. Even if you don’t change anything at all (although sometimes that might be the problem) there’s no winning formula because the cadets change what they need and want, which varies from town to town.
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We seem to be attracting numbers despite no pushing - 40 last Sep although we are down to 24 of them still here and 40+ again on list for Sep 24
The difficulty is keeping them beyond the 1st year - we seem to work on losing 50% of an intake year on year = so 40 becomes 20 after yr 1, 10 after yr 2, 5 after yr 3 (they tend to be the NCOs)
I think there is still a post covid push by parents to get them to join hence the big drop off in numbers - they come try because mum/dad said so and we keep the ones who have a genuine interest or who discover that there is more to life than a screen at home
The positive is they don’t know what it used to be like so they enjoy/make do with what we can give them. I think that is what keeps us here doing it. I think if I was at a Sqn with single digit parade night numbers I would soon lose the will to carry on.
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This was my Sqn immediately post COVID. 6 was a big turnout, sometimes we had 1 or even 0. Soon found there was huge pent up demand and are now well above 40! Patience paid off eventually
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certainly this was the case when I was a Cadet - of all those I started with after 2 years there was less than half still attending, and by the time i aged out I was one of two remaining.
I think it is “natural wastage” while someone will give something a go, after a year if it isn’t for them they move on.
and with teenagers there are so many other draws to their attention - Less so at my current unit, but certainly see drop offs at 16 when Cadets get into the world of work, be that full time or more likely part time /weekend work.
then of course there is the academic pressures. at 15-16 many choose to concentrate on school, and so see a drop in attendance there - then again at 17 when collage/6th form comes around.
if an individual isn’t questioning what they get from the organisation the chances are they are not an NCO, not attending camps or weekend courses, or simply the events run by Sqn (be these community based fundraisers, or PTS training or otherwise “syllabus stuff”) then it is no wonder they leave
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Had one tell me the other night they were leaving (joined Sep23) as they had ‘done cadets’ and got everything they could. Had not been flying, shooting, done any courses, camps, extra Sqn activities etc. Pointed this out and said ’ you sure?'.
Answer: Yes
so awaiting returned uniform
can lead a horse to water…
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Seems about par for the course, I don’t know what it is now but the average cadet caterer used to be 18 months.
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Sounds about right.
It can take quite a long time to get them through the basics and up to Leading, which is were they should be able to do more interesting stuff.
When I have cadets leave, and it’s not for exams, uni/job or sports, the most common reasons given are they don’t like the classification studies, uniform prep or discipline. Also some do struggle with 2 parade nights a week.
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We certainly are in a death spiral if we continue on this current path with this leadership team in place. I attended the SW Town Hall on Tuesday and nothing that was said there makes me feel like we are doing anything to save this organisation. We certainly can’t rely on HQAC or Regional Command in the SW.
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I made an application last autumn to become an adult instructor within RAFAC. I have emailed them today in.March to tell them to cancel my application to join.
From the outset I have felt completely unsupported and totally undervalued. When I chased my application ip I was admonished.The whole organisation seems to comprise of officers who have never actually served a day in their lives but think they are actual real RAF officers. This is fundamentally wrong. From experience young people relate far better to adult SNCO’s.
The worst part is the safeguarding team who stepped far wide of their remit, trying to dig up dirt that simply wasnt there. And no, I have nothing to hide either. And to ask me about my daughter who is joining another squadron. Erm, I dont actually have a daughter. I was actually decorated for services to safeguarding minors and bringing adults to account so maybe the safeguarding team feel intimidated by that?
From what ive read and seen unless there are radical changes recruitment of both adults and cadets RAFAC will continue to deminish with understaffing. under cadet recruitment and squadron closures.
The lesson here for RAFAC is dont treat potential adult instructors like crap. Get your recruiment process tight and in better time. Bring in more adult SNCO’s and get ride of some of the high ranking walter mitty’s who are totally detached from reality.
Something about this post doesn’t feel right.
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There’s much of your story here that isn’t aligning with what the rest of us have experienced in reality, and some of the statements that don’t make sense.
Yes, there are definitely recruitment and retention problems, but some of the other things you’ve mentioned are giving me pause for thought regarding your actual experiences - especially as they seem to talk about things are a) factually incorrect and b) processes that aren’t standard modus operandi.
To be very blunt, I’m personally no longer sure that you’ve actually tried to join and question whether you may just be a journalist bashing stuff together and hoping to create a story that doesn’t exist.
Go through this forum, you’ll see that we all attack senior leadership quite openly when it is required. But, it must be based in reality and also be required for us to do so, having not achieved our objectives through official channels first.
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