Cadet Programs
Cadet Programs
Officially, the Human side of the Confederacy consists of three classes of people: Sponsors, Concubines, and Dependents. Their definitions are clear and definite. However, sometimes there are grey areas...
Most colonies suffer from a lack of Sponsors. Most of the sponsors the colony gets issued are CMC Marines or CN sailors or FA sailors and are often away on deployment. But, there are still many jobs that need a self-starter who will think things through, ask for direction when needed, and take responsibility for a task.
Some colonies solve this problem by creating a 'cadet' program and filling it with under-14s who are expected to pass the CAP test. The cadets are given training and then put to work as probationary quasi-sponsors. They still need supervision, but with real-time communications via the AIs, one sponsor acting as a cadet supervisor can oversee several cadets. If some of the cadets are working on their own and others as supervisors for their own work crews, much more work gets done than the sponsor could have done him- or herself. With ubiquitous AI surveillance, the sponsor can often do his own job as well as supervise the cadets.
If the cadets reach 14 but fail their CAP test, there is no harm done. The cadet becomes a concubine or enrolls in the militia. If the results look promising, the cadet is retained in the cadet program in hopes that they will pass a re-test after some time.
If the cadet DOES pass their CAP test, well, the colony gets a new sponsor, already completely familiar with the Confederacy way of life and possibly with several years of experience at their specialty. In many cases, the new sponsor will collect a couple of same-age friends as concubines, set up housekeeping, and continue doing the same job they had been doing.
Examples of colonial cadet programs
- Beerat Cadet Program - see Independent Command:
...We set up a cadet officer training program, and allowed promising 12- and 13-year-olds to serve as apprentice officers, or cadets, in their chosen field. That got them to think about something beyond getting laid on their 14th birthday, and got us adults some free labor. It would also, eventually, give us some baby officers who weren't completely green.
We couldn't let the cadets serve on an active warship if it was out where it might get shot at, but they helped us in all our construction projects, helped man our in-system freighters and ferries, helped us repair our broken ships, helped us build new ones, and generally acted as that many more sponsors. They also acted as temporary stand-ins on our active warships, sometimes, when one of them was close enough to the Womb or Hotel or the shipyard to use transporters.
Of course there were some issues with the kids, but then our adult sponsors weren't perfect either. We accepted the problems as part of the cost of training tomorrow's leaders.
See Also
- Militia
- Beerat
- Independent Command
(Someday this will be a navigation template. It will provide a bar across the bottom of each article with useful navigation links. Until then, this is just a placeholder to get rid of all the red "broken link" indicators. -ZM User (talk) 10:00, 3 May 2024 (PDT))
