There are 3 different types of staff in the Air Training Corps: Officers, Non-Commissioned Officers (NCOs) and Civillian Instructors. The following information will hopefully give you a more in-depth look at how each one works, and what's required for each.
Officers
Officers are appointed into the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve (Training Branch) for service with the Air Training Corps. This means that they receive a commission in the RAF as regular officers do, but are reservists and are not able to be called up as they are part of the training branch.
Upon being commissioned, you receive the rank of Officer Cadet (Off Cdt), until you undertake a week-long course at RAF Cranwell, at which point you become a Pilot Officer (Plt Off). Once in the post of Pilot Officer for 2 years, and with your Commanding Officer's recommendation, you will reach the rank of Flying Officer (Fg Off). A further period of 8 years is then served before promotion to Flight Lieutenant (Flt Lt). This is the rank that most Officers commanding squadrons are, and upon taking command of a squadron the officer in question will receive this promotion.
If you are selected to be a member of the Wing Staff, the next level in the ATC's chain of command, you may be promoted to Squadron Leader (Sqn Ldr). Some particularly large squadrons have Squadron Leaders as their commanding officers. The next step after holding a wing post is to become the Wing Commander (Wg Cdr), however there are only 36 of these in the whole country, so promotion to this level demonstrates great achievement.
After wing level comes Regional headquarters. The Regional Commandant is a retired RAF officer, now holding the rank of Group Captain (Gp Capt) in the Royal Air Force Reserve (RAFR). The Commandant Air Cadets is authorised to promote to this rank as RAFVR(T), but it is exceptionally rare.
