Non-formal education with Sea Cadets

To better understand how Sea Cadets’ model of non-formal education can help young people adapt to a changing world, a group of our cadets worked with senior Marine Society & Sea Cadets (MSSC) employees to co-design a research project.

This took the form of two interactive and cadet-led workshops at the Conservative and Labour Party Conferences of October 2023. The aim was to capture the cadets’ experience of non-formal education in the context of their wider lives and communities.

Working with conference attendees to explore the how the skills they gained can improve their futures and have a positive impact on their communities, the cadets also highlighted the barriers to non-formal education that could be holding back their peers.

MSSC’s Policy & Insight Team has analysed the common themes from both party conference workshops to create a comprehensive model for increasing the impact of non-formal education. This process also informed three simple proposals for next steps that will help even more young people access the benefits of such a model and reach their full potential.

The workshop summaries, comprehensive model and our recommendations can be found in ‘Non-formal education with Sea Cadets: Preparing young people for a changing world’, which is available to download here.