Just been sent the new recruiting leaflets, and this is the new tagline…
Could they not have thought of anything better? Is the Air Cadets famous for it’s BTEC provision alone now?
Awful, won’t be using them.
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earn a what now???
perhaps I was too early in the scheme - but BTECs is a name that I only here in the organisation. I hadn’t heard of them before joining the Sqn and don’t hear of anyone else mention them, its not something the Scouts do, I certainly don’t hear parents at work indicate that their Johnny and Jane are studing for their BTECs - is it really something
1 - people know about?
2 - an appeal?
3 - something worth shouting about?
4 - has this become a USP because everything else is dying?
As a cadet progresses through their classifications, they gain Btec awards.
With the limited amount of flying available to cadets, I personally get fed up with recruitment material having an aeroplane at the forefront.
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But no one joins the Organisation for a BTEC.
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I imagine this is the reason.
I thought you had to be 16 to start a BTEC, so given many cadets do no more than 3 years, and if they start in year 8 they are unlikely to even do them. Plus I imagine ones they do as part of their education would be relevant to their potential jobs in the future, so would they hang around in the ATC to do something of little or no value after 16?
I’m aware that cadets earn BTECs 
However why not advertise the other things we do:
DofE (we are one of the biggest contributors to DofE in the UK)
Shooting/Fieldcraft
Radio, Cyber (there’s a new stack of funding for cyber in the cadet forces, why wasn’t that mentioned)
Etc etc
Exactly - it’s not a selling point, more a bonus…
BTEC’s are also delivered through colleges in a variety of subjects. My youngest lad was going to do ‘A’ Level Maths, English and Physics but instead opted for a 2 year BTEC in Engineering. He passed with three Distinction* which equates to 3 ‘A’ Levels at A*.
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thank you - so it would seem other providers exist (no surprise there)
although still a relatively unknown qualification - perhaps seen as an alternative to an A-Level? rather than a qualification in its own right?
DofE isn’t just an ATC thing, so is it an attracting thing?
I’ve got cadets who are doing it through school and just use the ATC for bits of it.
Shooting and fieldcraft are far too patchy in terms of delivery. We have got 4/5 squadrons who are active shooters and 7/8 who are into fieldcraft and there is an overlap of 3, so again advertise it as a mass audience thing and come unstuck.
Radio and cyber similarly niche.
Go back not so many years and there were lots of squadrons doing shooting, fieldcraft and radio, but since the introduction of more qualifications/training which eats into people’s time, less and less people are or have been doing it. I lost the people with the interest in radio and fieldcraft, I have an RCO, but without someone to do training or rifles of our own this is problematic. The problem is many of the courses are run by CFAV (to save money) and they have the same constraints as all other CFAV when it comes to time and fitting it all in. Trying to find people with the interest to do the training is .bloody difficult and I’ve gone a long way past of coercing people with the “do it for the cadets” arguments, as if their hearts and spark of interest aren’t there it won’t happen.
The BTEC’s we offer in the RAFAC are at Level 2, which is roughly GCSE pass equivalent.
But yes, BTEC’s come in a range of levels, for a range of subjects. A level 4 BTEC for example would be above an A Level, but below a degree (HNC level).
I’ve had more cadets do BTECs than traditional A Levels in the last few years, as the BTECs are more work relevant. The majority of these have had a range of B-A* at GCSE, most would get onto the traditional A Level route with no problem, so not ‘thickos’ opting for the easy way.
BTECs have been around since I was in school which I left over 20 years ago. You have different levels and they are more coursework orientated than GCSE, A level, bachelor’s degree… Level 2 is GCSE equivalent and Level 3 A level iirc.
Great way to get the youth engaged spend all day studying for qualifications and do more in your spare time. I can hear the thuds of the PlayStation and Xbox controller hitting the floor already 
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Does not selling via BTECs go against the notion of making the ATC less like an extension of school? Hence open book exams.
I realise that BTECs are not examined in the traditional sense, but the ones I know cadets do and have done, work on a project and assess process over the period of the course, with a final assessment piece. To give what we could offer any real gravitas and weight what could we honestly offer, where every member of staff is in a position to assess etc. The aviation studies BTEC has always struck me a poor halfway house thing in terms of educational value, even more so since we went open book.
To me, this whole new flyer smacks of “come to an after school club and get more school qualifications”. BTEC’s are valuable, no doubt, but it’s not the only thing we’re about, it’s not even a major part of what we are about. I’'ve just shown the flyers to some young people at work, and asked what they think the cadets do, the responses were various adaptations of “exams”, “is it a school?” etc.
Not good.
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As others have said, BTECs are just a vocational qualification available at Level 1 - Level 7 (equivalent of a PostGrad Cert/Dip). The ones offered through the RAFAC only are L2 certs/awards I think - the equivalent of 1 or 2 GCSEs at 4-9 (C above).
Many of the kids I work with sit a combination of GCSEs, BTECs and AQAs whilst in Year 10/11. The term BTEC isn’t an unknown to them - nor their parents. I can see Little Jane/Jonny’s parents being more attracted to the BTEC component of the post than Jane/Johnny themselves. Selling the additionality of it to parents can help boost numbers through the door… it won’t necessarily help directly with retention, but it could help at least give a bit of engagement. However, when you’re targeted most 12 year olds, parental involvement/interference in their lives is far more than when they are 13+. Which could be the target market for this particular poster?
Just a thought.
Maybe it’s aimed at the new CCF units being created in schools, therefore it is an extension of school / after school club.
While it will be understood, is this what we have come to?
We shouldn’t be pushing qualifications, that will be done better and have more gravitas from an educational establishment.
Flying and gliding are hit/miss as are the majority of other things depending on our individual abilities at squadrons. I know we can do things ‘together’, but it can be agg getting two or three squadrons to be able to arrange a suitable day.
Potentially, but given it’s been sent to me through my CoC and I’m not CCF it wouldn’t seem that way.
But this is HQAC remember, who knows what goes on in their little world.
It could have been sent to you in error. I get all manner of things for other squadrons in the odd bits of post that come out.