Three cadets from 1st Battalion the Highlanders took part in Tri-Service Cadet Leadership Courses, organised by 51 Infantry Brigade and HQ Scotland, at Barry Buddon Training Camp near Dundee.
Ross Company cadets Corporals Murdo Whitfield (17) and Ruben Aitchison (16), from Dornoch Detachment, and Orkney & Shetland Battery Cadet Staff Sergeant Kieran Thomson (16), from Lerwick Detachment, completed the nine-day course which builds upon their personal leadership skills.
The Cadet Leadership Course is open to cadets aged 16-18 from all three cadet services and is designed to develop cadets’ initiative and self-reliance by using the challenging and demanding problems of practical leadership.
The course itself is orientated around the leadership abilities within the cadet’s fieldcraft syllabus. Leadership can be learned and developed, but the aim of the Cadet Leadership Course is to focus the cadet’s attention on the personal characteristics they should be trying to develop, giving them leadership qualities that would serve them in the future.
Throughout the week the cadets took part in various situations, which included lessons on leadership and fieldcraft, TIBUA (Training in Built Up Areas) then ended the week with a three-day exercise on the training area.
Upon his return Cpl Whitfield said: “It was an amazing course with a week of leadership combined with a lot of fieldcraft. We did all this with cadets from all over the country from Shetland to Kent, I would highly recommend that everyone applies for it when they are eligible. You will have amazing time and make some great friends.”
Cpl Whitfield (left) during one of the command tasks.
