A cadet is a student or trainee within various organisations, primarily in military contexts where individuals undergo training to become commissioned officers.
The official rank is Officer Cadet (OCDT for members of the Australian Regular Army and OFFCDT for members of the Royal Australian Air Force), but OCDTs in the Royal Military College–Duntroon are referred to as staff cadet (Scdt) for historical reasons.
In Austria-Hungary, the cadets of the Austro-Hungarian Army (1867–1918) wore the Feldwebel rank insignia on the gorget patch.
For recruits or trainee who are training to be soldiers or police personnel in the enlisted ranks, the term is called Siswa which means "student".
However, siswa may also refer to students who are studying in military high schools and other training institutions.
In Ireland, a cadet is a pupil of the military college, which carries out officer training for the Air Corps, Army and Naval Service.
Training takes two years and the cadets are split into senior and junior grades and classes.
Students of the Dutch Royal Naval College, the service academy for the Royal Netherlands Navy, including the Netherlands Marine Corps do not serve as cadet, but as adelborst, the Dutch term for midshipman, or holding an upper adelborst rank (i.e. sergeant-adelborst).
Graduates of PMMA are given reserve officer status in the Philippine Navy and mostly go to private shipping firms.
Training takes two years and the cadets are split into senior and junior grades and classes.
In the United States, cadet refers to a full-time college student who is concurrently in training to become a commissioned officer of the armed forces.
Several civilian organisations, most notably police services and civil aviation and maritime groups, use the term cadet to refer to their trainees/students.