Once passed out a new Royal Marines Cadet can either join Musical Training or General Duties Training.  Cadets who elect the latter are placed into one of two age groups and their training is geared towards their experience and maturity. 

As they experience our range of exciting and challenging activities and training the cadets move up through higher phases to acquire new skills or become more proficient at existing ones.  By following the phase progression process our cadets receive a Personal Development Plan (PDP) to chart their cadet career.  Each cadet is issued with a sleeve badge showing which phase they are in and the cadets with the top score from the end-of-year training assessments receive awards.

The GD Training phases are:

• Phase 1: GD Cadets generally aged 10 to 12 upon passing out (cadets remain in this phase until they are 13).
• Phase 2: GD Cadets generally aged 13 to 17 upon passing out.
• Phase 3: GD Cadets who have completed Phase 2.
• Phase 4: GD Cadets who have completed Phase 3.
• Phase 5: GD Cadets who have completed Phase 4 and ranked substantive Sgt or above.  These cadets also form the Cadet Training Tream and assist with the other phases.

Cadets are promoted to Lance Corporal upon completing their first phase and then may attend the Junior Command Course (JCC) for promotion to Corporal and then the Senior Command Course (SCC) for promotion to Sergeant if they pass assessments in their next phases.  Once cadets pass Phase 4 and have passed the SCC they join the Cadet Training Team (CTT).  See the Command Training page for further details.

Promotion beyond Sergeant is by merit where vacancies exist, and promotion to RSM (the most senior rank a Royal Marines Cadet can hold) is by interview board.