Abstract
The National Cadet Corps (NCC) is the world's largest youth organization that has a military-style structure and one of its core objectives is to prepare young people for future national service or defence careers. Although there are some studies examining the relationship between leadership, training experience with respect to the NCC, and whether those experiences prepare young adults for a defence career, most research conducted to date has been on an institutional or regional basis as such, there has been little done regarding the local or district level. The purpose of this research is to investigate the degree to which NCC cadets in Coimbatore District develop leadership skills through their participation in the NCC, receive appropriate NCC training for future employment in a defence career, participate in NCC activities, and develop competency for a defence career. Further, it determines whether participation in NCC training and leadership development influence competency for a defence career. Using a Quantitative Design of Descriptive and Analytical Methods, primary data were collected using a five-point Likert scale questionnaire (structured format), administered to 100 NCC cadets. The results indicated that all cadets had positive attitudes towards each construct, and all scales demonstrated high levels of internal reliability. One-way ANOVA found that defence career competencies differed significantly by NCC Wing. However, defence career competency differences due to Certificate Level did not achieve significance at an alpha = 0.05 level. Multiple Linear Regression indicated that both Leadership Development and NCC Training/Participation are related to Defence Career Competency; however, the two factors together explain a larger portion of variance than either factor alone; moreover, NCC Training/Participation was the better predictor. Therefore, it appears that increasing formalized training and leadership opportunities and actual participation will be the best method to develop defence career competencies for cadets.
Views & downloads
- Article views
- Full-text downloads
References
14 references- M. Anish, V. Jayaprakash, S. Ganesh, P. Chandrasekar, X. Joseline, and B. Balaji, “Personality development and discipline qualities among the National Cadet Corps in Southern India,” Education Research International, 2022.
- K. Sharma and D. Hooda, “The new elective of National Cadet Corps (NCC): A review of literature,” Int. J. Res. Innov. Soc. Sci., 2023.
- C. Elavarasan, M. Selvam, A. Salamzadeh, and C. Kathiravan, “National Cadet Corps and its effect on developing soft skills among cadets of Tamil Nadu, South India,” Int. J. Public Sector Performance Manag., 2026.
- S. Yadav and P. K. Yadav, “Assessing the effects of NCC and NSS programs on the development of leadership style, accountability, and social maturity in students,” Int. J. Religion Educ. Law, vol. 4, no. 2, 2025.
- G. J and R. Sarkar, “National Cadet Corps (NCC) and its role in national human capital development,” Cuestiones de Fisioterapia, 2025.
- A. S., “The impact of leader development climate on participation in leadership roles of military cadets,” Int. J. Acad. Res. Bus. Soc. Sci., vol. 9, no. 1, 2019.
- S. Ananthan, W. S. E. Y. Wan Yusof, and L. A. Saidi, “Leadership skills development of military cadets,” Asian J. Behavioural Sci., 2023.
- K. N. Huda, A. I. Hossain, and A. Rahaman, “Measuring the effectiveness of youth development training provided by Bangladesh National Cadet Corps: A case study,” J. Developing Areas, vol. 58, pp. 143–155, 2024.
- M. Meyer and A. N. Rinn, “School-based leadership talent development: An examination of Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps participation and postsecondary plans,” J. Educ. Gifted, vol. 45, pp. 4–45, 2022.
- D. Sangwan and P. Raj, “The philosophy of Be, Know, and Do in forming the 21st-century military war-front competencies: A systematic review,” Defence Studies, vol. 21, pp. 375–424, 2021.
- S. M. L. Muha and S. P. Silitonga, “Defence human resources competency development strategy for adaptation in the era of volatility, uncertainty, complexity, ambiguity,” Journal Pendidikan dan Pengembangan Sumber Daya Pertahanan, 2025.
- The Hindu Bureau, “Defence exhibition exposes NCC cadets to myriad of job opportunities in tri-services,” The Hindu, Mar. 19, 2024.
- The Hindu Bureau, “Proposal to add three lakh NCC cadet vacancies approved,” The Hindu, Mar. 13, 2024.
- ET Online, “NCC Day 2025: From 20K cadets to the world’s biggest uniformed youth organisation,” The Economic Times, Nov. 23, 2025.
