An Cosantóir

40 | what i do JAMES HARDING LIEUTENANT OFFICER TRAINING SCHOOL, NAVAL SERVICE COLLEGE I am the Cadet Class Officer for the 50th Naval Cadet Class and I also carry out the duties of the Officer in Charge of Naval Simulation Training. There are currently seven cadets in the 50th Cadet Class. I am responsible for all aspects of the Cadet Training Syllabus. This includes lectures on everything from military writing to navigation and meteorology. My main focus is to ensure that each Cadet has reached the high standards required both in terms of their leadership/ management skills and professionally as Naval Officers. "It is some transformation when you compare what they were like at the start to their commissioning day" Naval Cadet Training is varied and fast moving; I along with my NCO training staff, CPO Brendan Madden and L/ Seaman Jonathan Dennis, have seen the Cadets develop through the year to date. This has taken them from the ba- sic military training in the initial months to their professional training term and on to their first deployment at sea. This last year has been a busy and involved year with the Cadets. Six of 50th Cadet Class are now in their first year in the NMCI studying for a BSc in Nautical Science and the sole engineer in the class is in CIT studying for a BEng in Mechanical Engineering. As a result my role has changed considerably. I now liaise with the third level institutes to ensure that the Cadets are performing to the standards expected and assist the Cadets in the areas that they may have difficulty with. A lot of my time is now taken up with the Naval Watch- keeping Course (NWC), on which I am the main instruc- tor. The successful completion of this course allows Offi- cers to take a bridge watch and to be a divisional Officer onboard a Naval Ship. This job is tied closely into my other role as OiC Simulation training, as the majority of the NWC is conducted in the modern simulation suites here in the NMCI. This allows us to conduct realistic Naval Training in a controllable environment without the unpredictability of the open ocean. This makes the training cost effective and reliable. I also run simulation exercises for the various other courses in the Naval College. An Cosantóir December 2011 WHAT I DO

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