I joined the ATC around about 1967 & was given a shockingly ill fitting 'Hairy blue' uniform, nothing like the smart uniforms of today.
However, we were ALL given the opportunity to go solo in a glider at no cost to ourselves. As school kids, we liked firing rifles, sometimes with the proper bolt action full bore 303 at times, but the 'Cherry on the cake' for the vast majority was going solo in a glider.
I just think that 'Computer simulated' rifle firing & very basic flying just cannot match the 'Real thing'.
The only answer is to get many thousands of cadets flying their own gliders again, with no one in the back seat, nothing else will do.