I’ve been asked to attend the local school in a few weeks time and use it as a chance to recruit (this is Year 9). The head is an ex-cadet and I think is wanting to push it to the kids which is great.
However, how do you stand in front of 100+ 13yr olds and ‘sell’ the Air Cadets in order to get a good return? Has anyone done this before with any success?
Done it before, got good returns but numbers can drop off quickly. Sqn need to be ready the parade night after for onboarding and a training programme needs to be in place.
Firstly well done on having a supportive head, makes a huge difference. I had a very supportive head at one School who then left and was replaced by a very-anti-military head, which was an interesting choice when so many of the pupils were from military families, anyway, that’s a story for another day.
Is it a whole-year assembly type event or going to something like a parents evening / open evening? How long have you got?
Have had mixed success with school year group talks, the best received ones were ones where Cadets themselves took the lead and the Staff were there as back-up, the I’ve done this so you can too stories are the best form of advertising.
It’s all of Year 9 - and I have 20 minutes
I had a powerpoint, but mostly made up of short videos of cadets doing stuff, rather than me talking on for ages. Lots of pictures of what cadets will actally do (so less pictures of fast jets and flying/gliding) like DofE, leadership, first aid, shooting etc.
We did one to a small school cohort who specifically came to see the presentation, so was better-suited for Q&A etc, but we’ve also delivered it to year groups.
Start of with our sqn recruitment video, then a quick overview of what we get up to, and then a quick overview of a cadet career and camps, top-tier activities etc.
Overview of the parade times and what a standard night looks like.
I would ask to chop that time in half, give-or-take.
Leave them feeling like you didn’t have enough time to blow their minds. 20 minutes could be too long if you’re delivering to a whole year group and it won’t interest all of them.
I’m also going to get a load of these square Moo business cards printed as an easy way to hand potential staff and cadets everything they need to find us later:
£93 for 400, so feels like a good deal.
I’ve been an in-school recruiter for a national programme previously, and also used that experience to recruit for a squadron. Here’s a few key tips:
Otherwise, good luck!
Would you be willing to share any of these videos with me at all?
Happy to share ours too if you like.
It’s on our website front page if you want to check it out.
