I’d argue that pilot is the premier profession in the entire armed forces.
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We might not be a recruitment organisation per se, but the fact remains that more than 50% of those who hold Commissions were Cadets be that ATC or CCF.
The RAF also regularly go on at Senior Levels about the need for the light blue footprint, if they lose we’re to cut ties they could/would lose the light blue at 95%+ of Remembrance Parades throughout the country.
Finally as pointed out by @GrandMaster_Flush the government commissioned review of the impact of Cadet forces says that they are a positive for society hence the CEP. If the RAF were to make a case for cutting back their community engagement arm due to finding the Reds would be on the chopping block first.
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The UK Government have never been neither very good at spending the taxpayers money in a businesslike manner, nor forming a pro-active, joined-up defence policy, hence we are seeing the problems we have with the Armed Forces emerging.
I like working in the RAFAC as much as you do: I’m questioning our right to exist in order to test our faith, which should strengthen on enquiry.
If the RAFAC was cut as part of a future Defence Review, I’m sure we’d find something else to do with our spare time - I know the cadets on my squadron would: they are all the type of child who has something on every evening of the week. It’s hard getting them to attend more than once a week as it is.
Nothing is sacred and no-one is indispensable when it comes to a UK Government Defence Review: I’ve never known one which suggested increasing the size of the Armed Forces. 
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Then you’ll find this illuminating, which will be an end to the topic;
Don’t know about you, but I volunteer. This isn’t a job, career, or anything like that. It’s a hobby.
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The amount spent in the 80s vastly increased the forces, then we had the stupidity of the so-called ‘peace’ dividend.
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No, but the RAF is still 6% short on manpower, which is increasing year on year. I would suggest they need us more than ever as a ‘discreet’ recruitment tool.
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Ok this is pedantry of the nerdiest order so apologies in advance but the RAF Air Cadets were originally intended to aid recruitment. The Officer Training Corps with their new Air Training Sections that were set up in the 1920s & 1930s were specifically aligned to officer recruitment for the RAF (& steal the “Officer class” from the Army & Navy as well as a bit of politics/networking within the establishment)
It’s the Air Training Corps that has never been specifically around recruitment & one of the reasons why they wear the ATC cap badge & not the RAF cap badge.
Interestingly it’s when we have this wider man power shortage we are seeing the move to a pure RAF Air Cadets brand & the expansion with schools of CEPs.
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The ADCC and ATC were recruitment organisations in that they were specifically preparing men for the RAF with war on the horizon (and then on the doorstep). When people say that the organisations aren’t a recruitment tool they mean in the modern day.
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That increase in defence spending was to make good the losses of the Falklands War, which was partly caused by the cuts announced in the late 1970s: e.g. HMS Endurance and Chatham Dockyard.
I served between 1984-2007, and ‘Options for Change’ started the armed forces on the slippery slope to our recent loss of Tier 1 status amongst the world’s military powers.
What I am getting at here in this post is that I’d like to see more cadets joining the RAF, at least on my squadron: I’ve had one join in eleven years, and one other join the Royal Navy because the RAF found out he’d been prescribed an asthma inhaler when he was seven years old.
On my squadron when I was a cadet, a good number of us left to join the military. As a CFAV, I’ve been otherwise running a crèche or been some sort of private tutor for getting pre-uni ticks in the box - maybe I should charge the market rate. 
I think armed forces recruitment has always been up against the British public’s historic anti-militarism: they like commemoration of past conflict, but there’s never been any votes for defence for a political party, and few parents see a military career as desirable for their children. Plus, we’ve had universal military conscription for a mere 30 of the hundreds of years we have had professional post-feudal fighting forces. 
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The organisation that originally formed, yes.
But that organisation was not the “Royal Air Force Air Cadets”.
My predilection for semantics isn’t out of line here!
Why? As long as my cadets feel their time has been successful and leads them on to fulfilling their promise in life, I don’t care what they get up to.
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Dont need the recruitment office team to come down to the squadron to promote getting a job in the RAF/Army/Navy though… sounds like you have the experience to advertise the good bits (and the bad bits - dont forget those because the recruiters would).
Why bore the majority with another talk, because certainly the vast majority would know by 18months if they were interested in a full time career in the forces.
That and the internet (useful tool) has just as much - if not more useful information that a cadet who would be interested in a particular trade… instead of a generic chat.
Leave the recruitment teams to set up shop at the airshows/Air & Space Camp and cadets can visit them there.
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The Royal Navy for many years and the army also had ‘press gang’ service.
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Maybe I should have joined the Air Defence Cadet Corps: they were more plumbed in to the defence of our homeland, and their brand name isn’t open to interpretation.
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I prefer looking forwards, not back…
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Is Teflon back?
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My dad taught me Ivan Skavinsky Skavar… Had forgotten all about it until I read this post… Seem to remember he was a pain in the… neck 
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Funnily enough, that song can be found on Amazon Music! Along with a lot of other songs under the category of “Rugby Songs”…
There has actually been a gentle change of tone on recruitment, with some steers coming from the top that we should do more to ‘encourage’ good applicants (that’s always been a thing).
For me, role models are far more important than PowerPoints. Send us some fine upstanding and young members of the RAF they can aspire to be like in a few years’ time. Sadly the Army are just as bad.
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Rather than look at direct recruitment, the way I look at it is that everyone on my unit has a positive experience of the ATC, the RAF, and the military in general.
Whilst they may not join up straight away, if at all. But for the rest of their life, they will be sympathetic to the RAF and military. If we raise a bunch of industry leaders, they may encourage people to join as reserves or CFAV. Or allow time off for camps or whatever.
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I think that’s the general plan. One of the reasons for the CEP is due to the experience of a number of MPs & civil servants being in their schools CCFs.
There’s less focus on the community cadets as fewer MPs were a member or remember them as fondly.
I would be interested to see the stats in how many in public service are ex cadets
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