I predict that in 50 years time people will still be complaining that the JRM is full of cadets, but there’ll be significantly fewer of them on camp.
4 Likes
And we will still be waiting for the qpjm, but thats a different thread lol
5 Likes
Then why not contact the section you are due to visit, speaking to whoever is your contact and say you’re in the mess and that a number of regulars are coming to lunch, and you have let them go in first. Might just actually help with the section you’re visiting to know the reason and foster a good relationship.
1 Like
I have a lot of time for managers in the workplace, because they have done the time and if they are new when they take up their role, they sit down and find out what you do and respect it’s not their area and not just come along from the outset telling us what to do and how, because they think they know all about us. This is the approach of HQAC senior officers; I’m an “x” and because of this I know more than you CFAV lot do about the Air Cadets.
Even in the job I do now, which I’ve been doing for less than 18 months a new deputy head was given overall responsibility for science, art and DT. They are an English teacher and admit they know little of the subject areas. Since May they have spent time with the teachers to understand their woes and with us support staff to see what we do and need, and said they won’t promise anything but will try.
1 Like
Unless something drastic changes in the next decade to actually give Air Cadets a direction, I’m not convinced there will be Air Cadets as we know it today in 25 years. It will need a huge input from the RAF, which I’m not convinced they are up for a range of reasons. Given they aren’t able to support us and the RAF is big enough to admit it can’t support us like we need and gives us greater autonomy, then there is much more likelihood of a future for Air Cadets.
So just following on from that, could the air cadets be returned to the air league & be run like the sea cadets with the Marine Society & Sea Cadets having an MOA with their service sponsor who appoints their nominal uniform chief exec, & gives them a grant to activities.
Less admin & less political issues & if it goes tilt the RAF has clean hand?
Effectively the cadets gets spun off like a PFI or CIC owned by the Air Force. Similar to how pilot training has been sub contracted.
This is the same sentiment we hear around here all the time.
It works both ways you know… Being a low level volunteer ‘at the coal face’ does not of itself equip someone to understand the requirements for running a national organization, reporting to KPIs which are set by the RAF.
Perhaps in 50 years it’ll even out, and as well as having top management who appreciate the intricacies of the organization, we’ll have fewer smart-a volunteers who think they know better than those who’ve spent a career in high level management.
2 Likes
Certainly a return to the Air League could be an option ( although given many of the comments on this forum ref snr management of any description they may not relish the thought). It would allow for other civil sector funding and, given the size of the RAF, perhaps a focus on a career in civil aviation. Lots of the current activities would remain (including station visits) and, given that up to ppl level powered flying is powered flying , an option for those interested to continue to pursue a career in the RAF. It would remove the reputational risk from our current parent service and, in addition, remove the need for double layers of qualifications ( national awarding bodies rules and regs would be followed but only theirs). Access to flying /gliding would be on a power by the hour / cost per launch basis from local clubs with no need to maintain a fleet. If the RAF wished to support individual cadets they could do so though open competition for scholarships PPL as per current arrangements at Tayside and gliding through maintaining Syerston as a national centre. Take all the savings from maintaining both the infrastructure and a reduced supportive HQ structure and make an annual grant to Air Cadets-UK
4 Likes
And have volunteers in post at ATF alongside the paid staff
I’m less and less convinced the “RAF”, know how to run a national youth organisation, aside from putting layers of admin in the way of doing things. Never had this until we were landed with admin wallahs as CAC.
That aside it takes nothing to actually talk to people to get a real feel for what they do, like I’ve experienced in my working life.
It could also mean Air Cadets continues regardless of the RAF getting smaller and smaller, which is more likely. RAF shrinkage is behind many of our woes.
1 Like
Aside from uniforms and shooting, the RAF needs us more than we need them.
And uniforms of different types can be sourced easily enough without the woes of RAF supply issues affecting us.
Would a mass mutiny work?!
1 Like
It wouldn’t necessarily be a mutiny, more a staged move. We just need the RAF to man up and say we can’t do this anymore and pass control to say the Air League.
I think we also need a purpose for the 21st century Air Cadets, not some pie in the sky buzzword laden nonsense which changes with every new cmdt, open to interpretation, with no funding and lacking real focus. Also this would do away with pointless visions with unrealistic time frames. There is no point in say Air Cadets 2030, when the author(s) will be long gone and any new people will want to do their own thing to leave their mark. All of these have been a litany of failure, except perhaps some online/electronic admin, which doesn’t need anyone in authority to actually do anything vaguely constructive.
When the ADCC was formed it was done so with a purpose, which the Air Ministry liked, which largely secured the ATCs continuation through WW2 and a bit beyond National Service. Beyond that because the RAF was larger it was able to absorb our desirings. But as the years have gone on, especially after the SDRs which have seen the RAF reduce in all ways, the Air Cadets, despite all the fine words has got lost and now the question is 'what is our purpose, we aren’t the preparing for service in the armed forces as per the ADCC and not been for probably 60 years. If the “light blue footprint” meant anything tangible you might have thought the RAF would be putting real effort into maintaining the organisation’s broader appeal to teenagers and making life easier for CFAV…
So what is our raison d’être for the next 50 years that cannot be met elsewhere?’
It’s sounding scarily like something I heard I think from the Commandant previously about progressing the organisation in a direction that turns it very specifically and deliberately into a filter/stream/pre-training for RAF service.
Which is making the “not a recruiting organisation” a blurrier line than it it already was.
Unfortunately I can’t remember the exact original quote or where it was from, but I do recall thinking “that sounds like turning us into a recruitment organisation, and I won’t be here for that if it happens”.
I’m also seeing mission statements released that drop the “civilian life” aspects and focus solely on the RAF…
5 Likes
The RAF like all the armed forces has a recruitment problem in the future plus recent events started at the top will not have helped the situation.
There was serious talk that if an aircadet had achieved XYZ in the corps , then they would skip phase 1 of training at halton or cranwell.
The regular training syllabus would be adjusted to take account of this.
The apparent savings of an individual not needing the first 8 to 12 weeks are huge.
But i haven’t heard anything on this for over a year now.
Maybe they realised they’d need to provide better training and resources to CFAVs if we’re essentially doing part1 basic training.
And arguably bring back the VR commission lol.
3 Likes
IOT has now gone modular, four terms of 6 weeks. Anybody commissioning from the ranks skips the first 6 weeks - more if they were a JNCO, more again if a SNCO.
I have seen nothing, though, in the ATC that would mean a cadet could skip the first 6 weeks. Ok, they might know how to iron a shirt and march a bit, but we’re miles behind on the military skills.
Certainly, even though I was a cadet and on the UAS, I needed those first few weeks. I would not have been able to join in at week 7.
3 Likes
I heard this in one of my specialist areas. AFAIK it is still being considered but it needs considerable extra resources including properly trained staff and the ability to deliver courses on a regular basis. None of which is free.
Historical perspective: this is how the public school OTCs worked in the years before WW1. Cadets who passed basic training in OTC were exempt from the first phase of officer training.
And I don’t think the officers they had in public schools then were experienced in actual war - the NCOs might have been. Obviously after WW1 that changed a lot.
Over the years, we have been trusted less and less to conduct actual training, especially as WW2 has (thank God!) faded into the past. But, as @WestlandScout says, we’d need better CFAV training and standardisation.