TRAINING PROGRAMMES
TOP TIPS FOR TRAINING PLANS SSI Jack Dench’s top tips for writing an effective training programme
DID YOU KNOW?
Section 4-4 of the ACF Regulations provides general advice on training cadets
Variety is key to keeping cadets engaged
01
ACTUALLY HAVE ONE. Any programme is better
than none at all. It allows your instructors to prepare their lessons in advance and, by extension, deliver better training.
02
CHECK IT’S CORRECT. It needs to be effective
and comply with policy, regulations, subject-specific pamphlets and
2LT DANNY VARLEY Experienced former detachment commander Danny has found a successful formula for working out his training programmes in the form of a templated spreadsheet. “As far as I’m aware, it’s in use in hundreds of detachments,” he says. “I’ve given it out to other detachment commanders and over Facebook. “The template they show you on the ALM course is a page for each star level. So to work out what you’re doing on one night you’d need to refer to four pages. Mine is designed to get everything on one sheet with all the cadets listed down the left-hand side and all the lessons listed across the top,” he adds. This works for Danny because he likes to plan his programme one session at a time. “If you try to plan a star level at a time you’re more likely to get clashes with resources and instructors,” he says. He combines the refined template with a couple of other simple admin tricks. Each completed lesson is marked with the instructor’s initials so that it is easy to follow up queries. And each instructor documents whether a cadet has fully understood a lesson so it is simple to identify which subjects need revisiting. “I don’t imagine that my template is unique,” says Danny. “It just helps us to get to the point where we know what lessons the cadets have completed and understood.”
MAJ JEFF PROTHEROE County Training Officer for Dyfed and Glamorgan ACF Jeff doesn’t think that a training programme needs to be too clever or complex. “It’s about doing the basics well and not trying to achieve too much at once,” he says. “Cadets potentially have five years to progress through the APC syllabus and there are no prizes for finishing first.” Jeff has been in post for less than a year and one of his objectives is to standardise the county’s approach to training. “Currently, it’s down to detachment commanders to design their own monthly training programmes, with some direction from area headquarters. But area HQs decide on their own training objectives, so cadets from across the county progress at different speeds and we miss the opportunity for shared training.” In terms of training at detachment level, Jeff says a robust programme has to be focused on progression and include a variety of tasks. “Most cadets are at a school desk all day. Our offer should be different: open spaces, visits to local organisations, training with other detachments – as long as you’re operating in the Cadet Safe System of Training, it’s all permissible in the APC syllabus.”
syllabuses, training directives and the needs of your cadets.
03
MAKE IT VARIED. Would you enjoy two periods of
first aid a night for three weeks? Probably not. What about drill, skill at arms or PT?
04
MIX IT UP. Sometimes it is beneficial to plan a single
activity that the whole detachment can take part in. PT, for example, benefits from bigger numbers. However, overuse of ‘blanket’ training like this is lazy and inefficient.
05
MAKE IT FUN. This is the easiest but most
important part to get right. Ask yourself whether you would find your programme fun. Take the time to plan trips and activities that don’t just focus on passing star levels.
FIND OUT MORE The Cadet SST is set out in the ACF Regulations (Nov 2017) paragraph 4.2.1.4
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