Originally Posted by
NutLoose
Going back to the seventies stroke eighties there wasn’t a corporals leadership course until I believe late on into the eighties.
I did my JT to Cpl leadership course at Hereford in 1984. It was an established two week course focussed on various administrative matters including how to fill out a F252 - the infamous charge sheet - and the sequence of the Orderly Room. This was the generic course for any trade. It immediately lost credibility in my eyes as the first test was the basic fitness test, then being the 1 1/2 mile run. We were told very clearly that anyone who failed would be removed from the course. There was a fat chef in his white top and chequered trousers who fell out puffing and wheezing just trying to line up with the rest of us ... but he still got his promotion. That was the time to get the message out loud and clear that standards were exactly that and anyone failing to achieve the standard would not graduate. Unfortunately, I observed this approach later at Cranwell on IOT when, after verbal bluff and bluster, people who had struggled for the whole 18 weeks [as it was then] still graduated.
After Hereford, we Techies went to Scampton for Trade Management Training which was orientated around line teams, overseeing aircraft engine starts and marshalling using Hunters [including Avpin starts with the asbestos glove] then learning all the F700 documentation and responsibility for supervision and over-signatures. I felt that it gave me a thorough grounding in my management competency and accredited me with a significant amount of responsibility much quicker than would have been expected in a civilian equivalent employment.
During Gulf War 1 when I had been aircrew for a few years, one of the Cpl Techies on deployment was a former fellow student at Cosford. There was no prospect of promotion in TG2 (Avionics) and he was about to leave the Service having been a Cpl for 7 years.