HISTORY        RANKS       STRUCTURE        UNIFORM

The basic unit which goes to make up the Air Training Corps , and the point at which most cadets join the Corps, is the Squadron.  There are 2 kinds of Squadron:

An Open Squadron: is formed within the local community, with membership open to any young person approved by the Squadron Commander

A School Squadron: is formed within a school and membership is restricted to past and/or present members of the school.  Most school Squadrons nowadays have relaxed these requirements and opened their membership to any young person from the local area.

A Squadron will normally have a minimum of 30 enrolled cadets and be run by Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve (Training) officers, ATC adult Senior NCOs and Civilian Instructors.  Some Squadrons may control a detached flight, in an area where there are not enough cadets to make a full Squadron.

In a local Geographical area (Glasgow and the West of Scotland for example), a group of Squadrons will combine together to form a Wing.  A group of Wings will form a Region (Scotland and Northern Ireland) and the 6 Regions form the entire Corps.

Except for the Squadron, which is run entirely by volunteers, each of these groups has full time, permanent administrative staff to ensure that everything in the Corps runs smoothly on a day to day basis.  However, as with the Squadron, the Wing, Region and Corps are commanded by officers of the RAF or the RAF VR(T).

Grouping Level	Squadron	Wing	Region	Corps
Commanded By	Flight Lieutenant (usually)	Wing Commander	Group Captain	Air Commodore
32F are part of		Glasgow & West Scotland	Scotland & N. Ireland	Air Training Corps
Officer Commanding

The Commandant of the Air Training Corps (the Air Commodore shown in the table) reports to the Air Force Board via the Personnel and Training Command of the Royal Air Force.

Alongside the uniformed side of the Corps, the Air Cadets are also governed by a non-uniformed group known as the Civilian Committee.  Each Squadron has it's own Civilian Committee and whereas the uniformed side of the Corps is responsible for all the activities and training which the cadets receive, the civilian committee is responsible for such things as:

raising money for Squadron activities

controlling the Squadrons finances

obtaining and administering the Squadron's accommodation

And, in a similar fashion to the uniformed side, Squadron committees group together to form Wing Committees and then onto Regional Committees and ultimately the Air Cadet Council, which is entirely responsible for the Air Training Corps.