Is their a minimum time between promotions for cadets?
Nothing set in stone. The only real rule that is set in stone regarding promotions is CWO age. Everything else can be decided locally.
Thank you
Some Squadrons may have local minimums to help manage expectations / applications.
I know for mine we say you must have had 12 months in rank before you can apply for the next one.
We have minimum of 3-months in rank but there’s also some criteria which naturally takes a little longer.
It’s a minimum time in rank & no sense as a Sqn tieing your hands if there’s a chance you may need to b pragmatic & accelerate through.
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As we advertise we can take it on a case by case basis.
But in general we find 12 months gives them
Time to bed into their new rank, then enjoy that rank before looking at the next rank. For me I don’t think a lot of cadets get to enjoy the rank they are in before feeling the pressure they have to get the next rank.
I’ve been mapping out deliberate career progression with a view to managing the pace of those with the ability to climb, with the express view that I find them a role that will challenge them and I aim to give them a year in each.
Bar some lip service to a general pyramid shape, I’m also not against flexing the structure as required to ensure that everyone who could benefit from and grow in a rank can have the chance — sqn establishment be damned (to a point).
I’m definitely over-engineering it, but bar some absolute high fliers, there’s a lot to be said for orchestrating the whole thing to give the section commanders, flight commanders, and deputies a full year (and inter-flight/section competition) in their posts, so they get to see through a meaningful period of time and have real ownership of their teams and the progress they achieve.
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in the “good ole days” when Cadets joined at 13 it was roughly
join at 13
Cpl by 15
Sgt by 16
FS by 17
CWO by 18
that was by no means automatic and was still based on merit, and an available place in the structure for promotions.
as a result there could easily be 6-12 months leeway on even being eligible for promotion.
i joined as a intake of 12, and by the time i reached FS i was one of only three still at the Squadron, (one other a FS, one a Sgt) everyone else left over the years. so the natural wastage sorted out the “automatic-ness” of the promotions, as a Squadron of our size with 12 FS would be foolish
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