Sounds about right.
Times how many! Thatâs a lot of money that could have spent elsewhere.
Good idea
In my experience, what would have happened with that money is that it gets spent on big projects which benefit very few cadets. How much money have we spent on big things which then sit at HQs and rot?
And this wasnât, on the whole, money âspentâ (as if it was money wasted) it was money invested in the future of young people, many of whom have gone on to fantastic careers in the Armed Forces and beyond.
I know, of QJLs
- army officers in countless regiments
- numerous Royal marines. (And officers) (I personally know two Kings Badge recruits who were QJLs)
- Pilots in both the RAF and Navy
Personally, I know it made a massive difference to my own life and career. I just hope that we can achieve the same result with lower cost.
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Iâm sure it will, the passion & professional bearing of the training team is still there to do the best with less.
Agreed. They wouldnât want to put out a sub par product. (Enough of them are graduates themselves!)
But possibly not directly⌠Theyâll just start calling themselves âQJL Bloggsâ
Back of a fag packet calculation on the cost of JLs. 120 cadets start last year, i believe 56 cadets finished this April. That means that JLs cost the RAFAC between ÂŁ500,000 and ÂŁ650,000. While JL is a good thing and they do turn out many well rounded xcadets adets. That is a lot of money and we are an aviation organisation and would buy a hell of a lot of flying and gliding at civvi flying clubs.
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With fewer weekends, I wonder if there will be a greater number of cadets going the whole course? I know of cadets who didnt apply on the basis of 9 full weekends AND camp spread around the country - coupled with associated travel faff.
The allocation is for 100. We may see a higher completion rate with less time commitment?
We need to do fewer things well as a Corps rather than many things poorly.
Personally, the percentage budget spent on JL I believe is NOT worth it.
That amount of money could pay for resources for everyone. Even if just spent on badges.
I disagree, there is a lot of hatred towards JL some of it deserved, but we should still run these big ticket courses as it gives something for our top Cadets to aspire to especially those who end up doing the maximum possible time.
If we cut everything that was expensive to run and focussed solely on mass cheap stuff we would never progress any Cadets beyond the Blue Badges.
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And wear their hat in a curious mannerâŚ
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The first paragraph you have written is contradicted by the second�
JL, QAIC, IACE, are some of the things we do well, on a relatively small scale. But they cost a lot of money per cadet. But the cadets they benefit are the ones who have really stuck at it, they arguably deserve these things. (I know there will always be exceptions, so we donât need to say that those individuals justify taking it away from everyone. Iâve always said to people, if you have a problem with a particular QJL, let the course know and they will.do something about it. But noone I know complain has ever taken that step.)
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JL was probably what it was almost by necessity - to meet the ambitions of the DS and also the training needs of those attending to get them very simply âup to scratchâ - the majority of Air Cadets have historically had very little prior experience of many of the required skills.
Nobody ever dialled the ambition back because it was the âbig ticket news itemâ that everyone got to show off. And actually, the length of it was part of the challenge and added reverence to completion.
Then other things such as QAIC were born and decided they wanted to compete for the elite title and come up with ways of differentiating themselves (flying suits⌠really?).
Presumably the theory now is that as dry weapon FT and B&P proliferates, JL will be able to put less time into the basic military skills and focus more specifically on the leadership within that tactical sphere.
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I never said I had issues with any jL cadets.
Just the amount of money spent on it.
Also I believe qaic is a waste of money.
Basically, all these big ticket courses need to go.
Focus on providing the best we can to as MANY as possible. Rather than 150-300 per year.
Better all get some, than some get all!
Well, theyâve cut the amount of money theyâll be spending on itâŚ
Thereâs always a cream on top. Why not cater for them somehow, since we have got the âall get someâ covered through the rest of FT and leadership trainingâŚ
My issue is the current situation with the accessibility of the courses holding on to that Gold leadership badge⌠But that is a situation we have raised and is being looked at.
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Without the big ticket stuff, we would lose many of the older cadets. The ones we then need to trick into becoming staff!
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How many of those who complete those big ticket things stay on, though? In my experience, those who have the ambition to do those courses have the ambition to leave cadets and do something else.
Earlier in the thread you mentioned that JL grads go on to careers in the forces. Thatâs great, but theyâre definitely not becoming staff.
Yeah, but thatâs also kind of what the organisation was designed to do. And many of them would come back and assist with JL, (and we donât pay them, so they were almost free!)
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