When I was a cdt in the 90s we went to the local police station and shot some mp5s (I think that’s what they are called)
Another visit was the police helicopter station (when they had them).
What type of sqn visits are available now? Have you had anyone come to sqn to do a talk etc? Such as any services? What about RAF careers?
We are not within easy reach of any RAF base so that’s it of the question… I did once attend a talk from a raf photographer who was posted to the Reds, which was great!
Good Evening,
Its reaching out to whatever is local to you - including the nearest (ours is well over an hour away) AFCO.
I find generally Police, Fire and Ambulance are always happy to either host a visit or visit the Squadron. Put a shout out to parents, or on the local community pages and see what come forwards, or ex cadets tend to be happy to come in to talk to them.
We’ve had some fabulous visits over the years from the “traditional” uniformed services, to the slightly more out there but relevant and fascinating. This included how computers are now included in some Beehives and what a big impact it makes, I saw on social media there was one who had an animal company in (not exactly sure exactly what) and the cadets got to hold all sorts of animals and creepy crawleys.
I’ve organised and been involved with various bits over the years. The type of visits available just depend on who you know or who you can contact.
We’ve done visits to fire stations where they’ve done displays and some hands on stuff with the cadets. Had visits from various different police teams, PCSOs, AFOs, dog units etc. All been really good. We’ve had talks from local serving people too. Ex cadets and family members of current cadets coming in to talk about what they do. Always interesting! Also had talks from veterans too.
As for AFCO and recruitment/careers people, we’ve had it once before, but hard to sort out as we’re pretty far away from the nearest base. Those sort of visits and talks work better as part of a bigger weekend event.
Also include your local search and rescue or mountain rescue, they can usually do something for a talk.
We had a great visit to a MRT centre after our Gold DofE! Showed us all the Gucci kit they have.
mRT… say whhhaaatttt?!
We have recently had external visits to the police helicopter base and a local care home to chat with the veterans and other residents. We also had a very popular visit to the local Rolls Royce dealership and workshops, the cadets loved the £800k car on display. Coming up we have a hands on visit booked at the fire station.
On squadron we recently had a visit from an RAF Careers engagemant officer based at Northolt, we are in Essex so they are willing to travel. We also have a visit from RAF presentation team from High Wycombe next week. In addition we have a scheduled visit from a Youtuber (Ted Coningsby) booked very soon.
We are currently working with a local military vehicle owner, police armed unit, a serving Royal Marine and Commonwealth War Graves to arrange visits.
Hope some of these ideas help.
Other options for talks are former cadets that have joined the services if you are struggling for the RAF link. We recently found a good contact living locally through RAFA and he has given us some great talks over the years, although just be careful with the content of some of them!