QAIC and JL staff training

Following on from @AlexCorbin on another thread.

Perhaps a really good idea, would be to take a 1 year pause in 2021 on JL and QAIC for cadet training.
Use all the staff on QAIC to provide specialist staff training.
Use the staff on JL to conduct FCI training and assessments. Just imagine how many more FCIs we could get across the Corps if this were done.

The cost saving of not running the 2 for 1 year could be funneled into staff training and recovery.

After all these are specialist high end residential and so the impact of its loss to cadets is minimal, but the long term gain could be huge.

Just a thought.

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Iā€™ve been a long term advocate that the organisation would be a thousand times better off having an 12/18 month focus on staff training rather than cadet.

Iā€™m not saying cadet training should stopā€¦ It should just at sqn level

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I think thatā€™s a pretty good idea! Especially to get more FCIs. Given that JL is already multiple weekends anyway, they could make that into multiple weekends of delivering the FCI course.

You could even still have the ā€œtest phaseā€ as it were but for all the newly qualified FCIs to go and have a proper exercise, blank/pyro the works; delivered by the the specialist team that run JL.

Another idea, for future QAICā€™s and JL have x number of staff places to run alongside.

Staff may not need to attend all the weekends, or may need to do a few bits extra, or a combination, but itā€™d be an excellent use of resources.

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We need a more long-term solution than just focussing on staff training at the expense of cadet training for a year.

What happens after that? The courses go back to being cadet only and then all those staff who couldnā€™t attend the staff training, and all new staff from then on are left without again.

We need to recognise that itā€™s not only about the cadets. That we need to have a continuous system for training our staff. That if we donā€™t focus on the staff then they will never be able to deliver a quality programme to the cadets in their charge.

How the organization expects to deliver the ā€˜premier youth experienceā€™ without properly equipping our staff to do so is beyond meā€¦

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Agreed.
But this discussion is about getting an initial boost and generate some momentum in staff training.

Is it? It seems pretty generic to meā€¦

No. Hence the 1 year time frame to it.

What we need after the one year timeframe is mandated staff training opportunities in each wing.

I.e. HQAC says each wing, every year must by end of 2022 be training a minimum of X FCIs, X lowland leaders, X bronze cyber etc etc.

Make the wing SMEs who should by rights be trainers actually DO something.

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Thatā€™s simply your input to the wider discussion.

Are HQAC going to be guaranteeing that people are able to give up their spare time to do this?

Give the opportunities, but donā€™t mandate that X number of people have to do courses, because then you just end up in the situation weā€™re in now; people doing things just to shut up the powers that be, but have no interest in the topic and wonā€™t teach it.

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Yeah maybe.

Iā€™m hearing a awful lot of ā€˜not my problem guvā€™ or ā€˜Iā€™ve got my quals alreadyā€™.

I am seriously interested in peoples ideas for how we are going to generate and recover the loss in staff numbers, quals and therefore total training capacity.

Or are we simply accepting that covid is the final watershed moment where the RAFAC becomes an online training organisation only. After all everything is a bit too hard isnt itā€¦

:man_facepalming:

Or maybe itā€™s actually just reinforcing the ā€˜my Sqns ok mateā€™ attitude.

Sod the rest.

Might as well cull all the struggling Sqns now?!

Not my opinion, but certainly what is coming across in many threads recently.

Iā€™m not sure that the ā€œmy squadron is okayā€ attitude is really an issue. Iā€™d say that we should be expecting Sqn staff to worry about their own unit and that we shouldnā€™t be placing undue burden on them to concern themselves with how other units are doingā€¦ Thatā€™s the job of those of us on Wing staff.

It should be down to us to ensure that the Squadron staff in our Wings are getting the training and support they need to do the job. If a squadron is well equipped with trained staff then great - thatā€™s one less to be worrying about at this time.
Certainly we can request and encourage those who hold specialist quals to use them for a wider benefit where possible but I think itā€™s the general training where we need to focus our efforts too.

Staff come in with varying backgrounds. Some will immediately be able to take on certain subjects but others will commonly appear with no knowledge at all about anything in our syllabus but with a desire to learn. We need to provide those learning opportunities.

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:joy::rofl::joy::rofl::joy::rofl:

Twice on 2 threads in 30 minutes.
Someoneā€™s pleased with themselvesā€¦

Are you on wing staff now per chance?
:joy::man_facepalming::joy::man_facepalming:

My emphasis.
Yes it should. Doesnt happen everywhere sadly.
No meaningful generation of staff training going on in my wing.
Wing staff too busy patting themselves on the back for running a one off update to volunteers. Literally.

Children, play nicely or Iā€™ll lock it.

Focusing on QAIC and JL, I donā€™t think suspending the courses for one year is the answer. Thatā€™s not fair for the cadets who want to attend the courses, and for some there may not be a next year.

On a general staff training tangent, I think we need to expand our AVIP course to be a series of modules to ideally be completed during the first year or two.

Modules such as safeguarding, heartstart etc should be completed within first 6 months, then the rest later. Other modules could be ā€œThe exec roles of a squadronā€, ā€œThe Cadet Experienceā€, ā€œBuilding a training programā€, ā€œBlue Aviation instructorā€ etc, our CFAVā€™s should attend introductory modules on all of our core activities.

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No, I just feel that Wing level need to take ownership of their responsibilities.
Enthused to now be in a position to start delivering what Iā€™d been requesting at Sqn level for years.

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Iā€™d agree. Though Iā€™m not sure whether modules on all of the core activities would be necessaryā€¦ Although I suppose at a low level just to give an overview of what we do would be sensible. Perhaps thatā€™s exactly what you mean.

I do think that engaging volunteers early on to find out what field(s) theyā€™re interested in is important. From there we can guide them and ensure that we give them the training to develop their knowledge and interest.

Exactly. The Scouts and even the ACF follow a similar structure. Seems to work well.

This was going to be my point. The age ranges for those courses are very limited anyway so taking them completely away for a year is going to mean some cadets never get the chance. That may not be a problem if youā€™re thinking strategically but it is a bit unfair.

From experience of QAIC I think youā€™d struggle to tag any staff onto many of the modules. There isnā€™t enough physical space (especially at Boscombe Down) and thereā€™s barely enough time to get all of the cadets through everything they need to do never mind tagging on extra staff too.

Personally, I think the way to go would be to have modularised staff training in various streams dependent on where your interests lie.

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