A Number of Cadets from C Company Essex ACF had a gruelling weekend of leadership and team working training at CTC Colchester when they attended the recent NCO Cadre held there.
The Cadets in attendance were all their aspiring for promotion and each individual hoped to prove themselves to the assessors while gaining more confidence and skills in leadership.
The weekend got underway by the cadets being put on the spot with the task of a 60 second lecturette on themselves which they had to deliver impromptly to the entire assembled carde and most of the Companies adults were also listening in. Many cadets told a rendition of their school and home lives with highlights including graphic details of how many muffins a certain cadet can eat in day!!
Saturday saw the cadet’s operating in two separate cardes one concentrating on the senior NCO’s and one looking at the juniors. The junior carde was assessing the cadet’s ability to be a potential CPL and the Senior Carde looked at suitability for SGT rank and beyond! Both levels carried out a range of leadership and command tasks including heat pounding P.T at 06.30 that comprised of a 3 k run and many many Press-ups, an enthusiasm boasting navigation event that saw cadets travelling between 1- and 15k over the training area carrying a heavy box of ‘Enthusiasm’ and an all important fragile egg!! The cadets also had to do a number of exercises that were designed to test there leadership and communication skills all this was interspersed with regular room inspections and dress parades.
Dinner on Saturday night was a lavish affair with the cadets getting an opportunity to experience a typical mess meal. The instructors served the meal to cadets wearing there finest suits and dresses. But the fun was not with out price after the meal cadets had to deliver there lectures on a subject chosen by there squad commanders based on something about the cadets personal statement! Some issues chosen for lecture were political some emotional and some where just about the best place to buy muffins! All the cadets put in there best effort to impress there assessors. One group of students were even submitted to an X-factor Style judging panel to allow the cadets a thorough briefing on what was thought of there lectures! The lessons were mainly of a high standard and one or two stood out from the crowd for quality not least an excellent lecture on ‘Fair Trade’ food.
Sunday was again ye more harsh P.T before but the early morning 'phys' was nothing but a precursor to the event that has now become a rite of passage for C Company NCO’s and known by most as ‘The Culvert Run!’. This challenging event pushing cadets to there limit by sending them on a log run along a riverbed and into long dark tunnels, there mental and physical abilities where pushed to breaking point. Luckily a hose was on hand to clean them all off after for last parade and of course the complete one to one de-brief that each student received on how well they had done and on what areas they need to improve to be more proficient as an NCO.
The cadets in attendance would agree that the experience was a good one and while the weekend was often turbulent and emotional for many cadets they all went home having learnt many valuable lessons both for their cadet career and indeed for life in general.
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