Page 43 - 2021 AMA Summer

CADETS
EXPEDITIONS AND ADVENTUROUS TRAINING IN THE ARMY CADETS
Cath Davies, Army Cadets National Adviser for Adventurous Training
As face-to-face training has tentatively restarted after the COVID close down, the Regional Command (RC) Cadet Branch AT team has taken to the road to run a series of Army Cadets Expeditions and Adventurous Training (ACEAT) seminars. Because both syllabus expeditions and Duke of Edinburgh (DoE) expeditions are now assured through the same system as AT, the presentation covered both the new expeditions and AT syllabi brought in this September. The expedition syllabus now follows the DoE framework exactly, making delivery more logical and the AT syllabus, although only mandated at One Star level, means every Army Cadet will have a hands-on, practical introduction to an AT activity. Although this could be any AT activity and as we are not now restricted by JSP 419, the Army Cadets recognise over 50(!), in reality many will go to a local climbing wall and as One Star expeditions are all done on foot, you could say many cadets are taking their first steps to becoming potential AMA members if they decide to join the Army or become Cadet Force Adult Volunteers (CFAVs)!
We have used the ACEAT seminars as a two-way conversation rather than a pres- entation and the strong message from the coalface workforce is they want to upskill
and stop depending on commercial providers. But they want that training to come to them regionally rather than have to travel to North Wales to complete lower-level AT awards and that makes good sense; after all, they are volunteers with day jobs and a very time-consuming hobby, running the Army Cadets!
On the mountain training side, these awards will include the Lowland Leaders Award and the Climbing Wall Instructor Award, the first steppingstones to higher National Governing Body (NGB) awards and sufficient to deliver the mandated AT as well as to qualify CFAVs to oversee syllabus expeditions.
One of the responsibilities of the HQ RC AT team is to deliver regional Continuing Personal Development (CPD) events, another way of upskilling the workforce and these have started, albeit offering paddling training. Mountaineering and climbing will be next, with promotion of the AMA a strong theme!
Indeed, I have reflected on how much I have drawn from my AMA experience to inform my strategy as Army Cadet AT adviser. I remember how we set up FASTRACK, the database of AMA AT instructors who were willing to assist other units when we discovered JSMTC had no record of who they had qualified! I personally was sought out by this system and helped a number of units on mountaineering expeditions. We are now creating a database of AT qualified CFAVs who can help other units which can be accessed through the AT team. But then the thorny issue of how to pay them across county boundaries came up and I remembered Paul Edwards, one of my fellow Honorary Vice Presidents, whilst an SO1 at what was then Regional Forces, created a pool of MTDs that could be used to pay Reserve AT instructors to assist either regular or reserve units on expeditions. So, we have created a similar fund to pay Volunteer Allowance (VA) from the HQ RC budget to facilitate
cross county assistance and despite the ongoing restrictions, this has already been used to facilitate an AT package on an ACF annual camp.
Although AT is elective above One Star, we anticipate there will be considerable uptake. A pre-pandemic survey of cadets found that 73% stated AT was the most enjoyable activity of the cadet experience and that was when what many of them experienced was a limited version of what we would consider AT! There is some very challenging and meaningful AT carried out in some areas of the Army Cadets, but for many, it was restricted to multi-ac- tivity packages delivered by commercial providers.
The Four Star syllabus requires that cadets undertake a progressive, five day single activity event, which includes a journeying element, and the AT team will be coordi- nating five such expeditions here in the UK in 2022, of which one will be mountaineer- ing. In addition, for 2023, we are looking at our first venture overseas, probably to Norway, based on the fact it is not too far away, pretty empty and has good medical facilities. How our risk assessments have had to change! So, from small acorns..... we build for a better future, upskilling the workforce, and improving the quality of Army Cadets expeditions and AT, in order to give every cadet the opportunity for personal development through exciting and challenging experiential outdoor activity.
Once again, I urge any AMA member with qualifications to consider if they could assist in this worthwhile endeavour; whilst ATG(A) has thrown us out of the JSAT scheme, we still recognise JSAT qualifi- cations and those holding them can use their qualifications to deliver AT within the Army Cadets. Just put your postcode into the search function on www.armycadets. com to find your nearest ACF detachment. They will all be carrying out One Star AT and would value your support.
Beneath the Rime – Cairngorm Meteorological Station
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