By rights everyone should start again and only wear badges earnt under the new syllabus.
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I hope that’s a joke because that would suck. That’d be like resetting everyone to junior cadets when the new BTEC comes out.
That depends whether you think cadets are here to collect badges or to learn about aviation. I would see a reset as an opportunity to learn the new syllabus, rather than be excluded due to my legacy qualifications.
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If it were down to me (of course it isn’t) I’d roll the PTS into the classifications. So each level would be a number of the current topics and however many PTS modules. Ideally allowing some choice.
I’d only keep the PTS badging for the top level or instructor quals.
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That’s a really interesting idea, and I can certainly see the merit.
The classification badges would then really mean a lot, the brassard could be much cleaner, and any additional badges would once more be largely reserved for highly significant achievements.
The only consideration I’d then flag would be how much flexibility you’d have left in the programme. Unless of course you categorised everything, so it became “leading cadet plus 2x bronze qualifications”, which would permit the squadron more flex.
Don’t the ACF roll a lot of qualifying content into their star levels?
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The ACF’s Army Proficiency Certificate (APC) is the original ‘progressive’ training syllabus: in that they teach the same subjects at each star level, only to a progressively higher level.
*At least that’s how it was in the mid-to-late ‘90s.
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They do - it’s a night mare resulting in lots of bottle necks & cadets unable to progress due to needing a final section which also restricts promotion - getting past Cpl is often a matter of blind luck with course dates aligning.
They have revamped the syllabus recently so it might be easier but it’s not a model we would want to emulate.
Personally I would ditch the PTS and go back to the looser arrangement so not everything has a gold topic.
Having said that I could see ditching the exam aspect for master proficiency & linking it more into excellence across a number of areas.
The main issue is the need to reduce cost so moving away from multi colours & reducing badges would make sense.
As the CCF aren’t scaled for PTS badges would they continue using the current proficiency badges?
I think simplifying it and rolling a lot of the training into classification is an excellent idea. The PTS concept is so focussed on giving cadets lots of badges and progressing through the Blue, Bronze etc that it misses out or ignores the real life benefits of being a cadet - teamwork, confidence, leadership etc.
First Class could include Blue DofE, Radio and First Aid. Leading could require the academic subjects plus a couple of Bronze badges, Senior and Master to recognise Silver and Gold level achievement but without compulsory academics. Those ‘advanced’ subjects could be rolled into Aviation activities/mini-QAIC.
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Blue comms is already almost identical to first class comms, for example.
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That is largely how I’d imagine it working. At each level it would be classification modules plus x number of current PTS courses (Blue/Bronze/Silver) for First Class Leading & Senior.
Ideally cadets would have a free choice but a bit like Snr/Mstr squadrons are likely to focus more on some areas than others.
For added flexibility we could even have a credits system. Say 10 credits for Blue and 20 for Bronze, so a cadet could make up a Bronze from 2 Blues etc.
I’d completely rethink Master but that might be a thread all of its own!
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for senior and master cadets do yous purely just allow the cadets to self study and do the exams for them on their own and at home if they want etc rather than anything in the squadron?
Yes, pretty much that. There are some subjects where staff have the knowledge and interest to help, but it’s mainly self-study.
I was suggesting above that the current classification subjects should become optional above Leading. Without the BTEC (or even with it) they aren’t much use for many cadets and just something to persist through to get the classification badge. The main motivation is that classification is an entry requirement for some courses (radio, why?!?) or promotion.
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We aim to teach at least some, we run a rolling programme of topics based on staff knowledge.
We are looking at different ways of delivering them too. Guided self learning / flip learning in the education jargon.
We have the instructors so we try to teach it rather than self-study, they then do the exams in their own time. We don’t have the IT capacity for them to self-study at the squadron so we’d have to plan something extra to entertain them on classification nights.
We do occasionally have cadets who prefer to self-study for various reasons which we try to accommodate.
It’s all dependant on local limitations and preferences.
Whatever the cadets motivation is, they’d likely lose it when all the work they’d put in so far was nullified and they had to start from scratch. Particularly at the higher levels, where opportunities are scarce.
I don’t think they should be excluded. It needs to be implemented in a way that allows a transition for those part way through the syllabus.
That sounds unnecessarily complicated compared with ‘old badges are no longer valid, you have to earn the new ones’. If I was interested in cyber communications and a new syllabus had just come out, I’d be chomping at the bit to experience it from the start and not miss out on what the new kids are learning.
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Different generation - the download generation has techs & things change so rapidly that they only learn the new stuff that they need to.
They leveled up before the upgrade patch & now working on a different specialisation.
Valid point. I’d not stop a cadet taking a course again if there was significant new material involved.
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Ping blue space into First class and Bronze Cyber onto Leading the brassard would look a lot “cleaner”
Flying & gliding wings Shooting/Road marching DofE 1st Aid
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This is not a drill people. 
