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8th November 2005

Training the Trainers

Cadet NCO’s and potential cadet NCO’s from 134 (Bedford) Squadron have attended a training day at their Squadron Headquarters on a course that was designed to refresh existing skills as well as introduce some new methods of management and training.

The day started off with a briefing from the Squadron Warrant Officer, AWO Taylor, during which the students were asked to write down where they felt they were as individuals currently and also were they wanted to be in the future. This was followed by a demonstration lesson which was also given by AWO Taylor. Reassembling after a short break, the course members were then taken through the principles of a teaching method known as INTROSH and were then able to relate the method back to the demonstration lesson. Using the method that had been explained the students were set the task of working in pairs to prepare and present a lesson on a subject of their choice to their colleagues and course staff.

The afternoon began with a drill session that included a practise of general static and marching skills for the cadets, many of which were in the Squadrons winning drill team. Next, under the supervision of a qualified drill instructor the students participated in an interactive session where their skills in drill tuition were refreshed and put to the test.

Meanwhile back inside AWO Browne had prepared the classroom for the next lesson which was titled ‘managing your assets’, where the interest grabber included a excerpt from an episode of ‘Dads Army’ which was used to illustrate how not to do it. The lesson was put together to open the course to the theory of dealing with multiple problems in the most efficient manner. After another short break and a move to the adjacent classroom there was a table top exercise to tackle. The cadets found a model map set out with a team of 10 model soldiers, each with a designated trade or skill, the exercise, entitled Ex War Room saw injects fed to the students. With the clock ticking the team had to decided how best to deal with various situations including searching for a downed pilot behind enemy lines and mounting security patrols.

The day was wrapped up with a de-brief and a question & answers session, during which some interesting points were raised and discussed including the comments that the cadets had written at the beginning of the day. Afterwards the staff running the training day commented that they had been extremely impressed by the effort put in by all of the course members and that they hope their refreshed and new found skills would be put to good use, continuing to drive forward what is already a very pro-active Squadron.