“I joined the Air Training Corps when I was 12 and I’ve truly loved being part of it. I’ve had numerous unbelievable experiences, been taught lifelong lessons and formed fantastic relationships with my peers and mentors. I have been given so many opportunities to learn and develop both hard and soft skills throughout my cadet career. Since joining I’ve worked with the philosophy that you should take each and every opportunity you can, and through following this mind-set, I’ve been able to achieve qualifications and undergo experiences that I couldn’t have anywhere else, all thanks to the Air Cadets.
Qualified Aerospace Instructors Course
“The greatest of these opportunities must be my selection and subsequent graduation from the Qualified Aerospace Instructors Course (QAIC) in 2023. Testing five areas of aerospace, aviation and instructional ability over six months of training, QAIC challenged me in ways that no other course or training had before. Becoming an Aerospace Instructor, whilst pushing me to my limits, developed not only my academic understanding of aviation and aerospace, but also encouraged me to embrace the ‘how and why’ mentality. This significantly changed the way that I approached my studies and resulted in me graduating as the overall top graduate of the 15th QAIC course.
Incredibly rewarding
“In August 2023 I had the privilege of being part of the directing staff for the 2023 National Air and Space Camp. Over five days I helped to give over 500 cadets their first experience of learning how to master air traffic control. This was incredibly rewarding for me, not only because it was an opportunity to put to good use the training I had learnt over the past year on QAIC, but being able to teach cadets something I’m passionate about was amazing. As someone who is just beginning their own career with the National Air Traffic Services, being able to introduce young people to an area of aviation they had perhaps never previously considered has been a great achievement and something I’m particularly proud of.
“Whilst I have had countless opportunities to learn and develop over my six years as a cadet, being able to share what I’ve learnt with the younger cadets has been very rewarding. Teaching elements of the progressive training syllabus has given me a new appreciation of the role of the adult volunteers, and I’ve also learnt to tailor my teaching style to cater to many different types of learners.
Forever grateful to the air cadets
“Being an air cadet has well and truly shaped the person I am today. I’ll be forever grateful for the experiences, the friends, the lessons and the journey that I have been on throughout my time as a cadet. I feel that it’s prepared me for my future in a way no other organisation could. To continue to share my knowledge so that others are able to take advantage of the experiences and opportunities that are available in the air cadets is very important to me. I’m looking forward to being able to develop further as a mentor and a teacher in my final years as a cadet and hope to continue with the organisation as uniformed staff in the future.”