Volunteer spotlight: Programmes Online
Our new service brings together session plans for every module in the CTP. Director of Sea Cadets Learning Heather Williams explains how it can support you
What is Programmes Online?
We have spoken to many cadets and volunteers over the last year to get feedback on the current session and resources for the Cadet Training Programme (CTP). As a result of your feedback, we now have more than 500 updated session plans on the platform – that’s at least two activities for every module in the CTP, along with over 100 new resources. We are incredibly excited to release all CTP modules from New Entry to Ordinary Cadet through Programmes Online.
How does it work?
Every session has been made with three main goals in mind:
- To provide cadets with engaging, active and practical sessions, without changing the core content of their various syllabi.
- To give instructors multiple different ways to deliver the objectives of each module, to suit their cadets and their preparation time.
- To ensure that all of the information needed to instruct CTP sessions is easy to find and digest, allowing new instructors to pick up and teach the content without having to spend time searching for the knowledge.
How will it help volunteers to deliver the CTP?
These sessions are designed to be practical, engaging and interactive. We hope that Programmes Online will support volunteers to deliver the best possible Sea Cadets Experience. You will have multiple ideas of how to run a CTP session at your fingertips, a choice of activities – so you can fit the activity to your unit’s needs – and you can find the knowledge and information on the platform (so there’s no need to go looking for it elsewhere – unless you want to, of course!) and all the ideas provided are designed to make things easier for you.
The sessions are also designed to get cadets talking and thinking, and involve them in the activity so they truly engage with the session. Over time, we will build on this and continue to add more ideas, activities and resources. We are also currently working to complete the sessions for the Royal Marines Cadets (RMC) Training Syllabus Programmes Online, for our RMC volunteers.
How to access Programmes Online
Watch an introductory video on how to use it:
Share your experience of Programmes Online
The sessions are not intended to be prescriptive – we want Programmes Online to be supported by all the amazing ideas that currently exist in units and districts. We would love your feedback on any sessions you run, including changes or adaptations that make them work even better for your cadets. Use the ‘Share Your Ideas’ button on each session to tell us how you deliver the module and we will turn it into a new session plan for the whole Corps to benefit from.
If you have any questions or feedback about Programmes Online, you can also let us know by emailing trainingdept@ms-sc.org
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