Welcome! I was also an SI at the tail end of covid and it took ages to get through the door (6 months) despite holding DBS and a proper security clearance. I dont think there is much knowledge in Wing HQs about SIs hence the confusion.
I would say throw yourself into what you can that is relevant to your day job. I would think FP and fieldcraft type stuff would go down well on a parade night. You can definitely bring in your experiences in things like leadership and first aid too. I found that being proactive and enthusiastic as well as bringing a credible viewpoint of RAF life was much appreciated.
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Pretty common in this org for SLT/perms/CFAV just to wing-it instead of asking for help if they don’t know. Too many people just working on random assumptions and not actually knowing what they should be doing.
Arguably, this is often not their fault as our policy is so cumbersome and constantly changing. And changing via IBNs/emails without extant policy getting updated.
Honestly, it’s no surprise a lot of OCs or WHQs don’t end up dealing with SIs (or others!) properly.
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Be interested to see how many SIs there actually are in the org.
I only knew of one in the wing when I was a cadet.
Probably clustered around MOBs. But still be an interesting demographic.
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100%. I only know a couple. But I’m from the south east in an area where there is almost 0 military presence. I bet there’s areas where there are quite a few SIs.
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We have five at the moment, 1 x Sqn Ldr, 1 x FS, 1 x Sgt, 2 x AS1s. Varying degrees of usefulness. The AS1 are still working their way through AVIP while whinging about why they have to do this nonsense. The other three are all ex-Cadets and have just accepted the mandatory training and have done various RAFAC courses to allow them to instruct in various things, some of which are actually what they do for a day job. Fieldcraft, AT, Radio & Cyber. We’d actually be stuffed in terms of staffing without our SIs.
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SIs can be from any service, though. I know of an Army Officer SI in our Wing, so while we’re nowhere near an RAF station, we’ve got a few Army locations nearby.
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Very interesting actually, especially your situation @emz .
And yes, we also have an army trooper on our books as an SI.
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At a Wing conference we did have Sqns moan they didn’t have any SIs and how unfair it was that we had them all, it was pointed out that we are the nearest RAFAC Sqn to the RAF Station and no SIs are going to drive two plus hours to attend the Sqns moaning… so realistically SIs are going to be limited to Sqns closest to Stations apart from those who stay on SMS for those Sqns they attended themselves as a Cadet as one of our SIs is also wanting to help out their old Sqn when they are home on leave.
Currently an SI and have been for around 17yrs.
Done most things now, if you want any advise just give me a shout.
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I was initially added as a SSgt, apparently because the civil servant at HQ didn’t realise FS was on the system. I’ll let that sink in …
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Well at least you’ve become staff now…
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