Bring back Jon Ford
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I asked him that at Bisley last weekend - I can’t print his reply! 
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A very enthusiastic yes then?
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But maybe that’s the point? I mean, brutally, how does road marching help cadets develop their understanding of RAF careers, and encourage the right ones to join the RAF?
A lot of the current strategy makes sense if you assume that TK has been told to focus on that rather than just on the overall ‘cadet experience’ as a self-licking lollipop. Hence, no D&C, no band camp, etc.
That’s the focus I’ve been told is key. If we’re not giving them skills useful to the RAF then it should be reduced in priority.
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And yet, we can’t use drones despite that being a pretty large RAF focus. Or fly anything for that matter.
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Better start an activity stream called:
“Job creationist bull poop”
Teach the kids to make up stupid rules to waste everyone’s time and taxpayers money?
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I thought the aims included skills useful in civilian life as well? What about the soft skills that many activities develop? Sure, they’re harder to measure in terms of qualifications but they are just as important, if not more so.
If this is the official policy now then we need to be open and honest with cadets and parents that we have returned to being a recruitment/pre-service training organisation
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The same can be said for DofE, sports, JLs and many other activities we undertake. But we also build better citizens which is also the point of the RAFAC.
You could argue that so few of the RAF are actually pilots. Should we we spending a large proportion of the RAFAC budget on AEF and gliding? As the advert goes, there is more to the RAF than just flying.
As for road marching, it is almost a zero cost activity, an activity which is popular with the cadets, at gold level it retains cadets and crucially it builds better cadets.
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It helps to train them to use their mind to overcome physical challenges, to ensure that they’re supporting their team around them even when they’re also suffering themselves and to dig deep into their personal reserves when they want to give up. Every single one of those points is critical in the regulars, particularly through training phases.
I’d argue there’s no current cadet activity that offers all of those items to as strong a degree.
More generally, it’s also probably the best activity for enabling cadets to work on embracing delayed gratification. It takes a very long time before they earn a serious medal - even to obtain their blue RM badge is typically at least 3 weekends, usually spread over a period of months.
IMHO, RM is one of the best activities the cadets offer for all-round development of young individuals.
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^^This^^ 
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Hence why we have seen the cut back in gliding and the almost non-existent AEF. What the RAF wants is more technical geeks and hence the MOD is looking at what brings the value to the RAF/MOD, which is not necessarily what the RAFAC likes to do because it’s a hobby for us.
With less aircraft the RAF is focusing on Cyber, STEM, and Space. Isn’t it obvious that the pause in activities is to align us with what the RAF is tuning into. When it comes to costs and budgets, why should the taxpayer fund activities that the RAF doesn’t need? Does it really care about making children good civilians? Not really. Thats schools’ job and not a multi-million pound MOD budget concern.
And hence the Job advert for Commandant states:
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I marvel at the mind that thinks taking all the fun stuff out of the ACO will increase the numbers of ex-cadets applying to join the RAF, and that by pushing the cyberz, etc… they’ll be better recruits.
I mean, I say marvel…
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Surely physical fitness and mental robustness, team skills are all key to the RAF
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Also, it’s the ONLY RAFAC activity where the cadets partake on exactly the same basis as the RAF - same requirements at the RAF 2-Day and Nijmegen for cadets and regulars.
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Sorry - but if we follow the RAF most recent history on what “it” wants I’m afraid that all the straight white male cadets have to leave. The truth is the RAF has no idea what it is doing at the moment - it doesn’t know if it’s a military force, a woke agenda organisation, a civilian organisation or a pretty ineffective flight training centre. Ryanair and Easyjet have better pilot training systems in place. The local gliding club can provide more access than the RAF.
And don’t forget, the RAFAC is not just about training future Air Specialists - it’s about creating good citizens too, it’s right there in the aims of the RAFAC. Our activities combined create team focussed individuals with mental robustness to push themselves. It should be schools teaching STEM, Engineering, Maths - that’s what school are there for. Schools are not there to teach leadership, teamship, robustness - that’s always been the extra-curricular activities that schools no longer offer.
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It’s ambiguous.
Is it saying “…the RAF’s ambitions for [the RAF’s] future”
or
“…the RAF’s ambitions for [RAFAC’s] future”
It’s a very important point to distinguish that would dramatically change the organisational strategies, as well as the amount of male cow excrement that CFAVs should expect to cascade downwards.
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It seems standard stuff - ‘ive had a brilliant idea, and when it colides with other people’s ideas, I’m going to A) act surprised, B) think everyone else is going to change their ideas to make way for mine, and C) think none of this is my fault…’.
If the ACO becomes explicitly a recruitment agency for the RAF, how will schools react?
How will the devolved governments react?
How will the existing staff react?
I’m certainly not going to hang around while all the stuff that allows kids to have fun, and make them better people for their own sake is ditched to make room for a holding pen for a bunch of basement dwelling tech bro/incels.
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But what are we actually doing in these areas?
We have a cyber course that is over 7 years old, which in cyber terms means it may as well have been written on tablets of stone. We have little or no integration with what the cyber industry (or defence) wants or offers, and CyberFirst is out of reach for most (I’ve not seen any courses advertised for a couple of years).
We have a space course which is Ok, but not much more than another classroom lesson. It relies heavily on a CFAV with know how in the area to bring it to life.
STEM: we don’t see much at all really, save for what is in the classification courses. And we know how current they are.
What we are able to do is develop resilience, self reliance, self discipline, confidence and leadership. All massively important for service life.
Most of that is developed outside the classroom, through fieldcraft, shooting, AT and DofE, as well as basic things such as being a JNCO on a Sqn!
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Isn’t one of the get out if cadets bring classes by the UN as child soldiers is that the cadet forces are explicitly not primarily a recruitment scheme for the armed forces hence was that have civilian volunteers provide most of the instruction?
I can understand the RAF wanting a return on investment by to make cadets a pre-join process is likely to cause some political ramifications.