This item on what a contemporary headteacher does may be apposite:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-48098952As an Air Cadet instructor I found the following specific Cadet-learned skills helped older Cadets towards selecting and attaining career paths on leaving when their formal academic achievements left them short:
- formal First Aid qualifications
- DofE attainments as evidence of ability to plan and lead (from inclusion on CV leading to call for interview and questions at interview, according to Cadets' feedback to me)
- shooting (for a couple who chose to join RAF Regiment as Gunners after unspectacular school achievements, both of whom rose to S/Ldr)
However, at a more basic level, both when Cadets are new and for Cadets who are middle-rank but not near school leaving age: showing latter how to do something (almost anything) 'practical', and then get them to take a group of the former and impart the same skills to them. This can be most effective in a competitive team or group setting: whose fire can boil a litre of water over a newly built campfire fastest; whose knots will hold the raft or bridge together best in or over that stream; whose scratch-built bambboo and netting fruit cage will survive best over the (real or notional) garden or allotment patch against the strong winds forecast over the next few days ? Even mundane things like ironing uniform and polishing shoes as part of an inter-group competition can be learning and leading opportunities; obviously easier if physically away at 'camp', of course. For the youngest ones, it also shows that teachers are not necessarily adults, and child leaders are not necessarily school bullies.
Good luck and, er, 'be prepared'
(mere guide at) Jet Age Museum, Gloucestershire Airport
http://www.jetagemuseum.org/TripAdvisor Excellence Award 2015
http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Attraction ... gland.html