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The Initial NCO Course is the first step for a Corporal on their journey in the leadership role. Whether you are already a Corporal, or seeking to become one, attending and successfully completing this course will develop your skills and confidence to set you on the right path to furthering your Cadet career.
Having completed the Blue Leadership Badge, this course builds upon the leadership and drill training that takes place on your squadron. In addition, the course introduces the Role of a Junior NCO and trains you for the challenges of the role. This includes Dress Standards, Inspection techniques, discipline and communication techniques.
This leadership training culminates in written and practical Leadership Assessments. These are good fun, and if you pass these, you will be awarded the Bronze Leadership Badge!
Drill is a key and essential part of bringing a group of cadets together as a team. It helps develop self-discipline and team unity and is a necessity to all successful cadet NCOs.
This course is an excellent development opportunity for all cadets who have shown a high aptitude for drill during, building on the formal training on the NCO Courses, the Cadet Drill Course focuses on these skills and helps you develop them.
The Directing Staff are all qualified Drill Instructors, with extensive experience. With a particularly relaxed atmosphere, this course will coach you through advanced drill and inspection techniques.
The Senior NCO Course is the natural progression, providing Corporals seeking promotion, or newly promoted Sergeants, with the enhanced skills needed to be effective in a Senior NCO rank. The course focusses on developing your personal skills in leadership and communications, including the Belbin personality evaluation.
This training leads to training on planning and executing large tasks as part of team – a key skill for a Senior NCO. This involves two planning exercises where you will work as a team to find a plan to successfully resolve the situation.
Along with the formal training, the Senior NCO Course also focusses on working with and developing each other. The course encourages students to work together and understand how Senior NCOs on other units operate so to better develop themselves on their own unit. At the end of the course, the Directing Staff provide students with one-to-one feedback and advice, designed to support ongoing progression after the course.
Following the Bronze Leadership Badge on the Initial NCO Course, the NCO Leadership Course builds on your leadership experience to take it to new heights. The training on the course will help you work out who you are as a leader, as well as how to turn the people around you into an effective team.
On top of the leadership training, the course covers extensive fieldcraft training; this is the only course conducted almost entirely in a field environment. This makes for a more challenging leadership environment, but helps the students on the course learn to make decisions when under pressure.
At the end of the course, you will have learnt a lot more about yourself as a leader and, following the written and practical assessments, you will have achieved the Sliver Leadership Badge!
The Advanced NCO Course is a unique initiative, designed to prepare our brightest and most promising Senior NCOs for service as credible and effective Cadet Warrant Officers within South & East Midlands Wing. The format of the weekend is different to that of the Initial and Senior NCO courses, with the style of delivery specifically tailored for the ability and maturity of the students attending.
The course has a much more relaxed learning experience, focussing more on reflective learning to develop future Cadet Warrant Officers’ understand their own personal strengths and challenges. In order to help this, the course includes individual mentoring sessions for each student and culminates in a Development Plan in order to focus you on your journey to the rank of Cadet Warrant Officer.
Successful completion of this course is an essential part of the eligibility criteria for applying for promotion to the rank of Cadet Warrant Officer within South & East Midlands Wing.