Cadets are the future

By Andrew Stackpool

Secretary of Defence Ric Smith chats with local Air Force cadets before the “Generate the next generation” launch in Canberra.

Photo by Kevin Piggot

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* A new initative to recruit cadets into the permanent ADF was launched in Canberra last month. The initative with the catchcry “Generate the next generation” is the result of two rigorous studies into the contribution of cadets to the ADF.

A NEW initiative for ADF Cadets has highlighted their contribution to Defence.

Under the catchcry “Generate the next generation”, the new program was launched at Russell Offices, Canberra, on September 6.

Guests included Chief of Defence Force Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston, Secretary of Defence Ric Smith, Chief of Air Force Air Marshal Geoff Shepherd and the Deputy Chiefs of Army and Navy, Major General Ian Gordon and Rear Admiral Max Hancock.

Head Cadet Policy Air Vice-Marshal David Dunlop said the cadets represented a significant potential, talented and cost-effective recruiting pool for the ADF and the civilian side of the organisation.

“It [ADF Cadets] is an organisation centred on more than 500 metropolitan and regional centres right across Australia, from the Top End to Burnie in Tasmania,” he said.

“At any given time the cadets attract about 25,000 young people with more than 2500 volunteer adults as cadet staff and instructors. They have come together to provide a youth development program that delivers in a military context.”

He said that for many years the directorate believed the cadet organisation made a significant contribution to the ADF, but in 2004 decided to test that assumption.

It commissioned two studies, which were intended to be “rigorous and statistically balanced”.

The first study was of the contribution that cadets offered to the ADF and the Defence organisation.

The second study was an “attitud-inal dip” into the three single-service cadet organisations, to provide an understanding of the cadets and cadet staff population. It comprised a national survey, coupled with a more detailed series of focus group meetings with 85 cadets from four regional and school cadet units.

“We were surprised by the findings,” Air Vice-Marshal Dunlop said. “The studies viewed alone sent telling messages, but when combined they made for powerful reading.”

More than 11 per cent of ADF applications are from cadets, while 35-to-40 per cent of student enlistments into the Australian Defence Force Academy are former cadets, and the surveys found that they perform better during training than non-cadet recruits.

The cadets are often the only ADF presence in regional and remote communities, and provide the only uniformed presence at ANZAC Day and similar events. Cadet staff, who are talented, trained and well-educated volunteers, committed to youth development in a military setting, support them.

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