Hey our sqn has a shortage of cadets and I’m looking for some tips in recruiting some more cadets
Having recently organised a rather successful open-evening I would strongly suggest trying to approach local secondary schools to organise a presentation during school time: for us this spread the word that we were recruiting and gave the chance for those who were interested to ask questions.
I would also suggest you/your staff look into designing posters advertising a recruitment evening or similar; these could be displayed in local community and can contain social media accounts etc to boost awareness. Social media is a very useful tool for recruitment as many of our newest cadets/their parents saw our page on social media before enquiring about joining.
Just a few ideas that I myself have used and had good results with. Hope it helps! 
1 Like
Schools is the answer, get into assemblies, do a presentation, give out leaflets and if at all possible get the school to email a letter home.
I have never done a school assembly but target the parents via Facebook. Keep the public facing Facebook page busy and share this stuff via the big groups associated with your town. Every now and then drop in a posting to the groups with a recruitment poster done as an image.
This approach has always filled our spaces, I’m in a situation where we have new recruits on a waiting list to join next September. Even had one parent wanting to register their 4 year old!
We run two intakes per year being January (moving this to March for 2020) and September. Run an intake evening with cadet NCO helpers to set expectations and tell them how wonderful we are. 2nd half of the evening NCO’s do some fun stuff whilst the parents get told about the committee and money etc.
Think of a suitable number for your intake that you can manage and advertise how many spaces are left. This creates the feeling of demand. We run registration through our website but you can use something free like eventbrite and put that link in your Facebook postings.
For me, at two different Squadron’s, has been by far the best way to recruit. Enquiries need to be handled quickly and professionally to create a good first impression. No need for staff to take time off for assemblies etc.
Message me if you would like some sample posters.
Good luck.
1 Like
Any reason for moving the intake?
Have a look at the local schools websites and talk to your cadets and see if under CEP a CCF unit has quietly opened near you and your WSO or Wing have said nothing. That happened to my old squadron which has now been moved and co-located for that read soon to be merged. If you are in an inner city location be very aware of the ACO wanting to move the nice locations.
If you are rebuffed by schools do some digging, some schools the cadet forces don’t fit the schools ethos or the head teacher’s and staff’s predujices orpolitical leanings.
It gives an even time between recruitment and means the training programme for them works the same for both intakes. The other aspect is that we are VERY short on space (single two story building with 80 cadets) and at the start of the evening the recruits get an extra session of drill. The weather in March is marginally better than January so we use outside where possible.
fair enough. I run the two intakes, but am moving the march intake back to Jan so we complete first class before summer holidays.
Swings and roundabouts.
1 Like