There are many national organisations in the United Kingdom and its overseas territories that have been established to provide services to people under the age of 18.
Junior Leaders In the British Army, Junior Leaders were subunits within corps or regiments (such as the Junior Leader Regiment of the Royal Artillery, the Junior Parachute Company, or the Junior Leaders Company of the Royal Bermuda Regiment) that enrolled junior soldiers to provide them with military training with an emphasis on leadership. Although junior soldiers were not liable for active service, they would go on to, or be encouraged to go on to, adult service on coming of age. Today, junior soldiers are recruited into the Army Foundation College, although the Royal Bermuda Regiment resurrected its Junior Leaders programme in 2012 when the Bermuda Cadet Corps was disbanded.The Bermuda Regiment: The Bermuda Cadet CorpsThe Bermuda Regiment: Request for volunteer instructors for the Junior LeadersJunior Leaders, Regiment Team Up For Exercise. Bernews. 24 March, 2014
Military cadet organisations
Air Training Corps
The Air Training Corps (ATC) is a British cadet organisation; a voluntary youth group which is part of the Royal Air Force Air Cadets (formerly known as the Air Cadet Organisation or ACO) and is sponsored by the Royal Air Force (RAF) under No 22 Group. It is supported by the Ministry of Defence; a regular RAF officer served as Commandant Air Cadets at the rank of Air Commodore until 2012, when the post was changed (as part of the ongoing defence cuts) to a Full Time Reserve Service (FTRS) position, also at Air Commodore rank. In 2013, the officer in command of the ATC was Air Commodore Dawn McCafferty. The cadets and the majority of staff are civilians. Although a number of ATC cadets go on to join the RAF or other services every year, the ATC is no longer set up as a recruiting organisation.
Activities include sport, hill walking, parade drill, rock climbing, rifle shooting, fieldcraft and other outdoor activities, as well as the study of subjects related to aviation, leading to a national vocational diploma (BTEC in Aviation Studies and others including Teamwork and Leadership). Week-long trips to RAF stations in the UK and abroad, or camps offering adventure training or music, allow the opportunity for cadets to gain a taste of military life and often to gain some flying experience in RAF gliders.
A teenager can join at the age of 12 or school year 8 as a junior cadet and earn positions of increasing responsibility in a military rank structure, as well as having increasing skill and competence recognised in a classification scheme. Service as a cadet ends at the age of 20. In 2012, the ATC had around 41,000 cadets aged between 13 and 20 years, in 1009 squadrons. Its cadets are supported by a network of around 10,000 volunteer staff and around 5,000 civilian committee members.
Army Cadet Force
The Army Cadet Force (ACF) is a British youth organisation that offers training and experience around a military training theme including adventurous training, at the same time as promoting achievement, discipline, and good citizenship, to boys and girls aged 12 to 18 years old. It is a separate organisation from the Combined Cadet Force which provides similar training within principally independent schools.
Although sponsored by the Ministry of Defence the ACF is not a branch of the British Armed Forces, and as such cadets are not subject to military 'call up'. Some cadets do, however, go on to enlist in the armed forces in later life, and many of the organisation's leaders have been cadets or have a military background. Cadets do participate with the regular army on some occasions, however.
Combined Cadet Force
The Combined Cadet Force (CCF) is a Ministry of Defence sponsored youth organisation in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1948, its aim is to "provide a disciplined organisation in a school so that pupils may develop powers of leadership by means of training to promote the qualities of responsibility, self reliance, resourcefulness, endurance and perseverance". It is not a pre-service organisation, although it acknowledges that one of its objectives is "to encourage those who have an interest in the services to become Officers of the Regular or Reserve Forces", and a significant number of officers have indeed had experience in the CCF. Prior to 1948 cadet forces in schools existed as the junior division of the Officers' Training Corps framework, but in 1948 Combined Cadet Force was formed covering cadets affiliated to all three services.
Girls Venture Corps Air Cadets
The Girls Venture Corps Air Cadets (GVCAC) is a voluntary uniformed youth organisation for girls aged between 11 and 20, It is also a registered charity, and by virtue of its work towards the personal and social development of young people, it is a member of The National Council for Voluntary Youth Services (NCVYS).Full list of NCVYS members The current Corps Director is Brenda Layne, MBE, and the Corps Commandant is Yvonne McCarthy. The GVCAC receives no funding from the Ministry of Defence (MoD). All adult staff members are subject to security and Criminal Records (CRB) checks.
Royal Marines Cadets
Royal Marines Cadets are part of the Sea Cadets. They take part in all the same waterborne activities, as well as branching off into adventure training and military skills.
Royal Marines Volunteer Cadet Corps
The Royal Marines Volunteer Cadet Corps is a MOD sponsored cadet organisation in the United Kingdom which is linked to the Royal Marines. The Royal Marines Volunteer Cadet Corps is part of the tri-partite family of 'Royal Marines Cadets'.
Royal Naval Volunteer Cadet Corps
The Royal Naval Volunteer Cadet Corps is a MOD sponsored cadet organisation in the United Kingdom which is linked to the Royal Navy.
Sea Cadet Corps
The Sea Cadet Corps (SCC) is a UK national youth organisation which is sponsored by the MOD senior service the Royal Navy and open to young people between the ages of 10 and 18 years old. The SCC is the UK's largest Naval Cadet Force with over 30,000 cadets and adult volunteers. Cadets follow similar rates and ranks, traditions, values and ethos as their parent service, the Royal Navy for the Sea cadets and for the Royal Marines Cadets the Royal Marines.
Whilst the SCC is not a pre-service organisation, a significant minority of former Sea Cadets and Royal Marines Cadets do go on to join the Royal Navy, Royal Marines or other sections of the Armed Forces.
Anguilla Cadet Corps
Anguilla Cadet Corps operates in the British Overseas Territory of Anguilla.
Bermuda Sea Cadet Corps
The Bermuda Sea Cadet Corps was created in 1966 and registered as a charity under the Bermuda Sea Cadet Association Act, 1968. The first unit had actually been created two years earlier.
Cayman Islands Cadet Corps
The Cayman Islands Cadet Corps established in 2002 in the British Overseas Territory of the Cayman Islands. The CICC has direct ties to the Cayman Islands Regiment. https://www.gov.ky/mha/cadet-corps
Cayman Islands Sea Cadet Corps
The Cayman Islands Sea Cadet Corps initially was a detachment under the Cayman Islands Cadet Corps as the Marine Detachment. In 2024 Marine Detachment of the CICC separated and was re-branded as the Cayman Islands Sea Cadet Corps. CISC has direct ties to the Cayman Islands Coast Guard. https://www.gov.ky/mha/departments/cadet-corps/sea-cadets
Gibraltar Cadet Force and Gibraltar Air Cadets
Gibraltar Cadet Force (to be renamed The Royal Gibraltar Regiment Army Cadet Force in 2024) and 2 Overseas (Gibraltar) Squadron, Air Training Corps (ATC) operate in the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar.
Montserrat Secondary School Cadet Corps
Montserrat Secondary School Cadet Corps, now including a Sea Cadet Detachment, operates in the British Overseas Territory of Montserrat.
Royal Jersey Militia Army Cadets
Royal Jersey Militia Army Cadets, Bristol & The Channel Islands Army Cadets, at Granville School and Le Quesne Barracks.
Turks and Caicos Islands Cadet Corps
Turks and Caicos Islands Cadet Corps, operates in the British Overseas Territory of the Turks and Caicos Islands.
Virgin Islands Cadet Corps
Virgin Islands Cadet Corps, operates in the British Overseas Territory of the British Virgin Islands.
Uniformed services cadet organisations
Fire Cadets Many fire brigades in the United Kingdom offer a cadet service to young people. The main aim of the cadet service is to provide a disciplined environment for young people aged 13 to 18, from all sectors of society, to learn basic fire service skills and core values. This in turn leads many young people to continue their involvement with the brigade by joining either retained or full time service.Fire Cadets
St John Ambulance Cadets
St John Ambulance Cadets is a youth section of St John Ambulance for members aged between 10 and 17 (inclusive). It was founded in 1922,St John Ambulance Cadet Handbook in order to train young people in first aid, and other essential skills. It has grown to be one of the biggest youth organisations in the United Kingdom, with over 20,000 members.St John Ambulance website Members take part in a very wide variety of activities, including providing first aid at major and community events, attending camps, completing awards, participating in competitions, learning leadership and training skills and fundraising.
Volunteer Police Cadets
There are a number of Volunteer Police Cadet schemes for young people aged (in most cases) between 14 and 18. These groups are designed to provide a sense of what it is like to be a police officer, by getting cadets involved in various police related activities, such as crime prevention projects. Some forces allow cadets to go out on patrol with Police Officers in connection with non-confrontational policing duties, once they reach the age of 14. Each scheme is sponsored by a statutory police service, although it has a separate identity, and in that sense is more distant from regular policing than the work of the former full-time Police Cadets. In most forces there are no formal entry requirements to become a cadet.
Scouting organisations
Baden-Powell Scouts' Association
The Baden-Powell Scouts' Association was formed in the United Kingdom in 1970 when it was felt that The Scout Association was abandoning the traditions and intentions set out by Baden-Powell in 1908. The Baden-Powell Scouts retain the belief that the essence of the movement should be based on outdoor activities related to the skills of explorers, backwoodsmen and frontiersmen.
It is a voluntary, non-formal educational charity movement for young people. It is independent, non-political, non-military, and open to all without distinction of origin, race, creed or gender, in accordance with the purpose, principles and method conceived by Robert Baden-Powell.
As an independent Scout Association, they are members of the World Federation of Independent Scouts (WFIS).
British Boy Scouts and British Girl Scouts Association
The British Boy Scouts and British Girl Scouts Association (BBS & BGS Association; also known as The Brotherhood of British Scouts) is an early Scouting organisation, having begun as the Battersea Boy Scouts in 1908.The Scout, September 1908 The organisation was renamed as the British Boy Scouts and launched as a national organisation on 24 May 1909. In association with other scout organisations, the BBS formed the National Peace Scouts in 1910. The BBS instigated the first international Scouting organisation, the Order of World Scouts in 1911.
European Scout Federation