Impacts of Participating in the Australian Defence Force Cadets

Abstract

Australian Defence Force (ADF) cadet programs create awareness of the ADF and ADF careers among young people. In doing so, ADF cadets informally provide the ADF with recruiting efficiencies for cultivating and converting interest in the ADF into enlistments. But recruiters must assign weight to participation in a cadet program when making suitability assessments. The value of participating in a cadet program, therefore, requires definition. As little is understood regarding cadet behaviors once they enter full-time service, to bridge the gap our research uses Kaplan-Meier survival analysis, linear probability models, and logistic regressions to compare the retention and performance behaviors of former cadets against non-cadets. We find that cadet participation is not a consistent signal that recruiters should apply as universally positive when making selection decisions. Our research into the ADF cadets is the first of its kind for Australia and could inform ADF recruiting policy in terms of how to weight ADF cadet participation when assessing preparedness and suitability for service in the ADF.