I’ve not heard that but I have heard that the age you can join as a CI is to be dropped to 18 & cadets will have a choice of continue as a cadet or become a CI. This was the route taken when they dropped the age from 23 to 20 for adult staff.
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I’ve heard similar, although I didn’t hear it as CI I heard it as Staff.
That would bring parity across RAFAC as CCF(RAF) can have uniformed staff at 18. Also precedent in pre-LASER review ATC there with CWO being able to stay on to 22 rather than 20, with an alternative of joining as adult staff at 20 if you wanted.
I also heard staff
There is a case for making it CI only but it wouldn’t align with the other CFs.
I think we all know my view on abolishing CI enough by now 
Personally I think it’s another pointless half-way measure just rip off the plaster and get rid of Cadets over 18.
We’re a uniformed organisation and shouldn’t be forcing anyone into civvies. If O18 cadets are to go, we should allow probationary uniformed adult service from 18.
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Indeed. But we seem to tie ourselves in knots over this topic. As I said above I can see the reasoning people will come up with. I’m not sure I’d accept that reasoning…
In my view, if cadet service to 18 doesn’t leave you well-placed to step into uniformed CFAV service (or regular/reserve service) at the lowest rank, the organisation has utterly failed.
Making them be CIs first makes no sense to me. Edit: Unless they want that for some reason.
Reduce the hurdles to get them over the staff line and keep them!
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If we are going to have cadets stepping straight up from cadet uniform to adult uniform though, we need to be encouraging them to take a temporary transfer away from their original unit.
The transition from cadet to staff is usually difficult enough without being in exactly the same environment as before. I say this as someone who made that transition.
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Encourage, yes. Mandate, not at all
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I think it depends on the individual. I did the same but found it very easy. The staff at the unit treated me as a member of the staffing team from the moment I was a cadet FS so that transition was made a lot easier.
If I had been told to relocate, I would have likely left because the local units were run by complete morons at the time and they were run like glorified youth clubs.
Same reason the new adjutant shouldn’t be overseeing the same JOs they were just getting drunk with.
And this is what we should be doing — starting that mental transition early.
Both to help them succeed in the world if they go off to university or work, or if we want to hold onto them as staff if they’re sticking around…
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If over 18 cadets have the choice of staying in uniform as a cadet or becoming a CI then they aren’t being forced - they are being given the option that they can choose which way to go.
The only forcing would be if a CO is happy for them to be a CI but not an A/Sgt or Plt Off at that stage.
& to flip the argument nobody should be forced into uniform.
For me with my old OC hat on, if I don’t trust you to be a Junior Officer or a SNCO why the hell would I want you as a CI, to be frank why would I want you as a Staff Cadet?
We are a uniformed organisation, if you don’t want to wear a uniform you could always volunteer elsewhere.
CI’s as we have them and use them now we’re never supposed to exist, the role was for Subject Matter Experts who came in, did their thing and left. Not for Squadron Adjutants and Training Officers or in some cases running units.
Edited to add - not that I don’t value CI’s and what they do, but it’s an anomaly that should be fixed, the same as Staff Cadets.
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This off topic & perhaps better debated over a beer 
I agree that the original intent behind CIs has changed by in that time volunteering & society has changed with a greater focus on ad hoc informal volunteering that the structured type.
Rank & uniform does not always dictate skill or ability as it’s no longer linked & hasn’t done for a while)
you are also seeing such things occurring in the wider military & wider work. I know of a fire area commander, managing a police staff who in turns line manages a PC & PS.
The lines are a lot blurrier these days which is what has made the staff cadet role even blurrier. Even in the regular military & cadet force only some of the WEXO wear uniform & both them & the RC gain their authority & accountability from their civil service grades & not from the uniform they wear.
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Yeah before @pEp has an aneurysm.
I do however on topic think it would be foolish to only allow certain ages to be CI’s, especially when as an organisation we are supposed to be encouraging people into uniform.
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Between this, the politics thread and the debate about staff cadets/CIs/over 18s/everything else I’m already broken.
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I remember several CWOs coming straight back as Plt Offs without any issue. But as CWOs in the 1990s they were already like staff members anyway (running the 25m range at the local RAF station, signing out L98s from the armoury, etc.) not to mention being 21 years old.
On the other hand, I left at 18 to go to uni. In my new setting the prospect of being a uniformed, paid Sgt Instructor with the ACF was much more attractive than transferring to the local ATC sqn as a cdt sgt or becoming a ‘civilian’ (yes, I know I was a civilian anyway, but uniforms and ranks matter to some people who are attracted to uniformed organisations).
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Especially at that age.
I’m one of the mad men who wants to do away with CI’s while being a Flt Lt than only wears uniform once or twice a year when I can’t avoid it.
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