When you join as an Adult Instructor you become a CI or Civilian Instructor, this is a great role to teach cadets and become involved with the ATC, however should you want to be a bit more involved in policy and the way the cadets are trained then a uniformed role is best, and there are 2 routes, the SNCO ( Senior Non-Commissioned Officer ) or Volunteer Reserve Officer, both wear RAF uniform and get paid by the RAF reserves but the choice is up to the individual.
I chose the SNCO route, as I prefer to get involved and teach interesting subjects, like radio comms and shooting/ archery etc whereas the Officer route is more paperwork and administration.
Being an SNCO in the ATC has allowed me many training opportunities, including First aid/ medic courses, shooting and archery coaching courses and radio amateur (RAF) licences, plus firefighting and incident management courses.. next year I'm doing NVQ levels 3 and 4 in Teaching in Life Long Learning, which is a post 16 teaching qualification for tutoring and college lecturing etc, all paid for by the RAF, staff can even get flying qualifications and become instructors!
What I do is much more than I have put here but it is so much fun and so rewarding to see the cadets grow and move on, one of my former cadets is now in the RAF regiment and one is in the 3rd Battalion The Yorkshire Regiment, both going to Afghanistan in the new year.. they visit squadron regularly and are wanting to become ' service helpers ' when their Afghan tours are over.
Anyway, a couple of pics of me, including me receiving my Operational Firefighter Certificate from our Sector Squadron Leader.
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