How do you Train your New Cadets?

[GTCommando]

Greetings,

Just out of curiosity, what approaches do your squadrons use when it come to training new cadets?

1.  Do you use the trickle-in, BCT or pipeline approach, or a combination of the three?
2.  Do you recruit mainly through open houses, word-of-mouth, etc?
3.  Do you accept membership applications any time of the year, or at certain times of the year?
4.  Is the bulk of new cadet training conducted during weekly meetings, or over a few weekends?
5.  Are new cadets trained at the squadron, or do you send them to Group or Wing?

This is intended as a kind of best practices exchange. Any input, alternative training approaches, etc. are welcome.

[HGjunkie]

We train our cadets with a litter box and a bowl of dog food.

In all seriousness, my Squadron has two primary flights: Alpha and Bravo. We put all cadets/visitors who are new in Bravo, and once they've demonstrated their drill abilities we "promote" them to Alpha. We've had a trickle of new cadets lately, so there's enough of a base to train multiple cadets at the same time with Bravo.

This will probably change if we get fewer cadets, so It'll just be the older cadets (Cadets who have been in longer) in Alpha, with the Newer cadets in Bravo.

[Extremepredjudice]

1.trickle-in
2.word-of mouth
3.any time
4.weekly meetings. Isn't like they learn anything. 
5. At the squadron

We have 2 flights, alpha and tango. Someone needs to learn their alphabet.
Alpha is the flight that can drill. We have 8 people assigned. 4 or 5 usually show up.
Tango has about 25 cadets... Know of whom are learning drill from their flight staff.

I've tried several times to get 1on1 or as close as possible for the new cadets. Right now it is like 20 on 2.

And somehow they all get promoted without knowing drill. 

Right now I want to see how long I can remain element leader. At this rate I'll be an officer and still be an element leader. No one pays attention to CoC...

[lordmonar]

We use CAP's great start program.

1.  We start a new cohort every two months or so.
2.  We do word or mouth, open houses and recruiting booths.
3.  Anytime....but the we don't start their training until the GS program starts.
4.  At the weekly meeting plus a one day field day...as per great start.
5.  At the squadron......how can you possible do it at group or wing?

[GTCommando]

...how can you possible do it at group or wing?

I've heard of Great Start being conducted at Wing. Just wondering if anyone actually did it that way.

[coudano]

1.  Do you use the trickle-in, BCT or pipeline approach, or a combination of the three?

We trickle in for recruiting, and funnel all of the recruits "pretty soon" (within a couple months) into a BCT (weekend)

2.  Do you recruit mainly through open houses, word-of-mouth, etc?

Our biggest recruiting events are public things like airshows, and then from the people who join at those we get some word of mouth ripples.  We also get some cold walk ins.  And a few transfers every now and then.

3.  Do you accept membership applications any time of the year, or at certain times of the year?

Any time.

4.  Is the bulk of new cadet training conducted during weekly meetings, or over a few weekends?

The bulk of new cadet training is done at BCT which is one evening and all of the following day (1.5 days usually a friday night/saturday).  That covers everything the cadet needs for phase 1 including uniform wear, cadet oath, customs and courtesies, e-services, how to promote, and ALL of the drill commands.

5.  Are new cadets trained at the squadron, or do you send them to Group or Wing?

We do it in house at our squadron.
There are events out in the wing that they can go to, but so far, none of them have chosen to do so.

[titanII]

1.  Do you use the trickle-in, BCT or pipeline approach, or a combination of the three?
2.  Do you recruit mainly through open houses, word-of-mouth, etc?
3.  Do you accept membership applications any time of the year, or at certain times of the year?
4.  Is the bulk of new cadet training conducted during weekly meetings, or over a few weekends?
5.  Are new cadets trained at the squadron, or do you send them to Group or Wing?

My squadron has two flights- Alpha and Bravo. Bravo is made up of all C/AB's and their flight staff.
1-3. We get ourselves "out there" via Recruiting booths, word-of-mouth, and open houses. We start training Bravo flight after the Open House. Ideally, I think, everybody's first meeting is an Open House, and then training starts from there.
4. Weekly meetings, but at the end of "Cadet Basic Training," we have a Basic Leadership School: one weekend (Friday evening through Sunday evening, an Encampment-like environment)
5.At the squadron.

[cadetesman]

My squadron has 1 flight of about 15 cadets... We are very small, and ALL training is done in house, except for 1 voluntary Cadet training academy each year, which has an airman(mini encampment) school, NCO school, and basic officer school.

When we drill, we take basics and new people to one side, while the rest of us do our thing.

Our info comes from word of mouth, because the one HUGE squadron down the road from ours gets most people interested in the area.

However we have quality over quantity 

I was a cold walk in, along with 1 or two others.

Our training is done in house, and we have classes for basics, while the rest of us do other, more advanced things.

We have a small building (VERY small school)

However, we make it work, and in my opinion, no singular program can "work" for all cadet programs.

Just my 2 cents.

[GTCommando]

*Bump*

What, no more input?    I know we have more Cadets and CP staff than this.  Any best practices, things you've tried that don't work, etc?

[Extremepredjudice]

*Bump*

What, no more input?    I know we have more Cadets and CP staff than this.  Any best practices, things you've tried that don't work, etc?

Teaching 20 cadets at once doesn't work.

Teach 1 on 1, or as close as possible.

Use the tell-show-have-correct method, it has been used for thousands of years, the best part is I just made it up. (the name, not the method. I don't remember the actual name, I believe it is in the learn to lead somewhere)
TELL the cadet how to do X
SHOW the cadet how to do X
HAVE the cadet do X
CORRECT the cadet doing X
# profit 


You'll probably get a better response asking a specific question.

[HGjunkie]

Use the tell-show-have-correct method, it has been used for thousands of years, the best part is I just made it up. (the name, not the method. I don't remember the actual name, I believe it is in the learn to lead somewhere)

It's the Demonstration-Performance method of teaching. And it's in the leadership manual. Remember that! 

[Al Sayre]

*Bump*

What, no more input?    I know we have more Cadets and CP staff than this.  Any best practices, things you've tried that don't work, etc?

Whip & Chair

[GTCommando]

Here's a more specific question: Do you use Cadet Great Start, slightly modified to suit your unit's needs, or did you develop your own program from scratch? What do you think could be added or modified to make GS a more effective training curriculum?

Thanks for all of the replies. I'm asking all of this because it's almost time to start thinking about our squadron's next open house. There's quite a few things we learned last time, but I still want to make sure we offer the best training program possible.

  -GTCommando

[SarDragon]

*Bump*

What, no more input?    I know we have more Cadets and CP staff than this.  Any best practices, things you've tried that don't work, etc?

Teaching 20 cadets at once doesn't work.

Teach 1 on 1, or as close as possible.

Use the tell-show-have-correct method, it has been used for thousands of years, the best part is I just made it up. (the name, not the method. I don't remember the actual name, I believe it is in the learn to lead somewhere)
TELL the cadet how to do X
SHOW the cadet how to do X
HAVE the cadet do X
CORRECT the cadet doing X
# profit 


You'll probably get a better response asking a specific question.

Au contraire! As evidenced by military training programs all over the country/world, you can do exactly that. My recruit training company had about 80 people in it. We learned stuff just fine. My tech school classes had 20-25 people in them. We learned just fine. The Demonstration-Performance method works as well for small or large groups.

I think you need to work on two things before reengaging this discussion - better tact in presenting your ideas/opinions, and your knowledge of training methods. The latter appears to be woefully inadequate.

[Extremepredjudice]

*Bump*

What, no more input?    I know we have more Cadets and CP staff than this.  Any best practices, things you've tried that don't work, etc?

Teaching 20 cadets at once doesn't work.

Teach 1 on 1, or as close as possible.

Use the tell-show-have-correct method, it has been used for thousands of years, the best part is I just made it up. (the name, not the method. I don't remember the actual name, I believe it is in the learn to lead somewhere)
TELL the cadet how to do X
SHOW the cadet how to do X
HAVE the cadet do X
CORRECT the cadet doing X
# profit 


You'll probably get a better response asking a specific question.

Au contraire! As evidenced by military training programs all over the country/world, you can do exactly that. My recruit training company had about 80 people in it. We learned stuff just fine. My tech school classes had 20-25 people in them. We learned just fine. The Demonstration-Performance method works as well for small or large groups.

I think you need to work on two things before reengaging this discussion - better tact in presenting your ideas/opinions, and your knowledge of training methods. The latter appears to be woefully inadequate.

Sir, if cadet snuffy is having a hard time doing a drill move, and I need to spend long amounts of time correcting him, than I have less time to correct the 19 other cadets.

If Snuffy and bagodoughnuts are the only cadets I have to teach, than I can watch every mistake they make, and can correct them.

Sir, the military has you 24/7. I have an hour. Or less. The military has several instructors. I am one person.

I'm not an expert teacher, but my method works, every cadet I've trained learned whatever quickly, and I usually have enough time to teach them a bonus drill move.

With groups some cadets are hidden behind others. Thus is the problem. I CAN'T SEE EVERYTHING. if you know of a solution, please let me know!

[SarDragon]

With groups some cadets are hidden behind others. Thus is the problem. I CAN'T SEE EVERYTHING. if you know of a solution, please let me know!

Put the stronger cadets on the inside of the group, and the weaker ones on the perimeter, where you can see them. It's not cast in concrete that you absolutely must have your formation arranged by height all the time.

Also, I think we're talking about two different situations here. I'm talking about things in general, which seemed to be your direction in the quoted post. Indeed, remedial training works best in very small groups, but most training should be done en masse.

Regarding military training, much of it is done one instructor at a time. There might be a team of two or more instructors, but there's usually only one teaching at any given moment.

[titanII]

With groups some cadets are hidden behind others. Thus is the problem. I CAN'T SEE EVERYTHING. if you know of a solution, please let me know!

For stationary movements, it works well to have the cadets arrange in a semi-circle around whoever is teaching, that way they can watch everybody while they do the drill move, and all the cadets can watch the teacher demonstrate.

[MIKE]

WIWAC we had a cadet handbook with basic knowledge stuff that would hold you until your binder showed up.  Encampment had something similar but IIRC it was mostly memory work.  Our squadron one supplemented the binder pretty well for basic stuff IIRC.

IIRC, the flights might have been divided a little based on ability for D&C, but otherwise new cadets were fully integrated into the squadron.  There was no phased recruiting or special "uniforms" for new cadets. Just come to three meetings and then you could join.

I could probably take the Great Start stuff, make it into a pocket guide and it would probably be better than what I remember... I'm sure I still have some in my pile of CAP stuff.

I've also done the phased recruiting, heavily structured training pipeline with TitanII's squadron.  Some swear by it, but I'd say that my biggest issue with it is the the investment in time and personnel that in my case at least did not always mean a great return on investment, particularly when you have a small squadron to start with.

[the_T]

1. We used a combination of all these and more. We have two flights, Alpha and Bravo, bu instead of putting all of the new cadets in bravo we have them mixed. As new cadets come in they are assigned to a flight usually alternating each one back and forth between the two. Once they are assigned to a flight they are then assigned to a certain element and introduced to their element leader. Their element leader and flight sergeant are the people they mainly interact with. It is their job to teach and train the new cadets and I've found it to be more effective than completely separating them. So instead of have a flight of 15 newbees that you have to teach they are spread throughout the flight and the ratio of student to teacher is reduced from 15:2 to 1-3:1 and by the cadets being surrounded by people that are experienced and know what to do they catch on quicker than being surrounded by people that don't know what to do.
2. We do open houses, worth of mouth, posters, flyers, and sometimes make school presentations.
3. Accept apps anytime during the year, waiting until only one time of the year and turning cadets away until a certain time is a big risk. They could become uninterested or find something else to do.
4. Train them at the squadron but we do have a new members orientation where they show up in civies on a Saturday and spend time teaching them the basic of basics and have computer stations set up so that they can learn how to access e-services and take care of their intro to safety and all that jazz.
5. Trained at the squadron, sometimes we have group events like an Operation stripe (cadets come for a weekend and attend classes and etc and do everything they need for a promotion).

These are the things that I have found that work for me and my squadron but there are other ways that work as well.

[NateF]

The way we do it here in Maine is through an Airman Academy. Essentially we take the first 3 leadership chapter, 2 AE modules, the drill req's up to Wright Bros. and some odds and ends of other basic stuff, pack it into a weekend and voila, new cadet trained.

Of course it's not perfect, but rather than try and have the squadrons muddle through it all with varying results, this approach seems to work best. Its far better to get everything thrown at a cadet in one shot, rather than take 3 months to get a functioning cadet by knocking bits ans pieces out at meetings.