Some of the blue badges are really easy to learn to teach. The blue badge log book is very self explanatory. Just needs a bit of research. Bronze and above is done at Sector or wing level etc anyway.
Fixed that for you
But yes, most Blue Badges are deliverable without much effort,
Yes as a lot of adult staff have no idea about the subjects! Also the power points are crap and we still refer to old acps!
I find it a bit hit and miss across the whole syllabus. Some are fantastic. Others almost useless. I’m of the understating that they are all being reviewed and updated?
Not sure if that work is continuing. No argument that it needs doing!
Our Sqn trialed this, but very quickly found it was open to abuse. We released the subject presentations and the exams to cadets and they were literally coming back to us before the end of the parade night saying they had passed the exams and could they have the badge!
There was absolutely zero self-study and they were going straight into the exams and copying and pasting the questions into googling for the answers.
We have a healthy number of MOI’s on squadron now, so they teach all the classification lessons with staff SME oversight.
Yes dont get me wrong. Up to leading cadet is ok. But its getting the older ones to do senior to master its like they are very basic ppts. Its hard to understand unless you are into learning about it or even have subject trained staff it might be ok. But they need more than that. Like an ideas base where visual aids that can be useful. I make games for things, like phonetic alphabet flash cards. I hate to say like other youth organisations. Some young people need practical, visual simplified things to show how things work. Not everyone learns from a flat screen.
In that case, how concerned will they be about continuing to wear a badge representing a legacy qualification that’s no longer relevant?
I suppose any online system is option to “abuse” the only way around this would be exam conditions and some form of monitoring. However with master cadet being at least 15 years old to get the badge and in general Leading around the age of 14, there should be some form of trust and it’s not like they are getting a formal qualification that is transferable to “civvy street”. In a job interview passing your master cadet nobody is going to care, however the individual cadet that does cheat is only cheating themselves ultimately something that isn’t possible with the other PTS subjects.
Except “back in the day”, and potentially again soon, you were earning a formal qualification in the form of the BTEC in Aviation Studies. Now if you actually used that to get anywhere that’s a different matter.
Still waiting to watch this space on that. Maybe why when I was a cadet it was paper exams in formal conditions. Although I have never used my BTEC in aviation studies at any point in getting any job, the exam night was controlled.
Personally a “MOI” style after Leading would be the better way forward. As a cadet you do the learning for 3 subjects off the Leading/Master list and the “assessment” is in a form of a presentation or project rather than exams. When you are 15 and either doing GCSE mocks or actual GCSEs in that school year the last thing you really want is for exams in your hobby. For example rocket propulsion could be the topic and a presentation and STEM related classroom delivery to other cadets would be more productive for the Squadron than the expectation of them to do the exams in their spare time
i think it is all relative.
the ATC is not the only hobby open to teenagers with “exams”.
taking an obvious link of aviation, should a teen wish to go gliding, there are exams to pass to gain a pilots licence.
this is just one example. music (grades) is another which comes to mind, although accept this isn’t an “exam” in the traditional sense, there is still a formal assessment.
that said, to bring it back to the relative impact of an ATC cadet, classifications do not make or break a Cadet’s experience (unlike other hobbies where exams open up doors to the next level/natural progression within the hobby).
While there are expectations that classification and rank are roughly aligned, this is not strictly adhered to (although I do doubt I would need two hands to count the number of First Class FS) in all my time we have not looked at the potential candidates and then sifted them by classification as a “first filter”
however the “exam” in the ATC whether this was from my time, as pen and paper, or today via PC hasn’t changed in terms of its application - ~25 questions with multiple answers to choose from. They are not taxing to complete and (providing IT system is working first time) completed within 30-40 each.
in comparison school examples are rarely multiple choice, and require a lot more from the candidate (ie showing working, or a paragraph(s) of explanation) typically 60-90 minutes at a time.
When the BTEC vanished, the Scottish contingent stepped up and got the exams linked to SQA points, yes there is an additional workbook to fill in to be able to claim the SQA points but for example Leading Cadet, the workbook is the date each exam was passed, signed by either the Sqn Training Officer or OC. For First Class and Leading combined, you are awarded 25 credit points with First Class equating to a Nat 5 and Leading Cadet equating to a Higher.
Isn’t a Scottish higher supposed to equate to an ‘A’ level?
Higher - AS Level
Adv Higher - A Level
Interestingly I stumbled across this about myers-briggs which is included as part of silver leadership.
The RAF’s been using CoreStrengths / SDI for a number of years now, but I suspect there’s an associated cost.
It’s a crock of , like most psychoanalytic tests.
I think the issue is, is that most people change in terms of their psychology based on their expenses, trauma & any stress.
But what lot of people do is take the test once & assume they are in that box & other people put them in that box.
You now is not the person you were ten years ago & won’t be the person you will be in ten years.
When I did SDI on IOT, everyone was jostling to be red as it was perceived to be the most punchy and alpha. Very strange. These psychometric tests are just business school horoscopes