I think Nog is the only one we see, but perhaps there was a continual rotation of Cadets among the non-bridge crew of the Enterprise throughout TNG.
I’ve never seen anything Trek-wise stating such, but IRL they’d normally send us out during the ‘summer’ months (May through August). (Maritime/USCG here) There was one Year where we sent the EAGLE down to Australia for their bicentennial, which required breaking that particular class’s summer cruise into 2 six-month trips (similar to what used to be done at USMMA until just recently), where half the class switched out for each phase, but that’s it. Cheers, -CM-
There's a thousand people on the ship, but we mainly see the bridge crew. Could easily be a couple of trainee Cadets well away from the bridge (and cameras).
Yes, cadets do spend a period of time on assignment to a ship or base as a routine part of their training. This goes on regardless of it its peacetime or wartime. Indeed, on Disco, we know from PA announcements there are something like two or three other cadets assigned to the ship in the first season besides Tilly, and the Ask Not Short Trek focuses on a cadet assigned to a starbase as part of her training.
Ages ago I came across the TNG book "The Best and the Brightest" which followed six cadets through their years at the Academy (and a couple into their initial postings) with the backdrop of all the major TNG and DS9 (ending with the events of Generations and VOY) going on around them. I really enjoyed it as it gave the reader a sample of life as a cadet, as well as looking at the big things going on across the Federation from an observers point of view in universe. It might not be what you're looking for, but it's an enjoyable read.
Nice, I second this one. The relationships in this were really nice and kind of ahead of it's time compared to live action. I would have liked to have seen them reappear in other stories.
Seems like the Academy is a typical 4 year university, or something like Annapolis or west point. So most of the time, your at the academy studying, maybe with a Major like Botany or computer science, or which ever job there going for in Starfleet. During parts of the year, they go out to real units, maybe first years something like a training ship like the Enterprise was in TWOK to get experience in ship board actions. with maybe a 4th year having an option to remote study his/her/it's classes while on ship. Something like an internship to graduate.
^ I always took it that the first year was one of general studies, instilling discipline and protocols as well as the basics of piloting, engineering, self-defence, etc, then from the second year onward cadets specialised in their chosen field(s). During this time they would have the opportunity to undergo training on cadet ships, installations, research teams, whilst continuing with classes in Starfleet doctrine. Some cadets may end up on a posting where there is some great action or excitement, but on the whole it would be fairly run of the mill (as Dax says to Nog when he's trying to convince Sisko to support his application to the Academy, sometimes Starfleet is just a lot of hard work--some of which has to be pretty mundane at times as well, so who better than a cadet to fob it off on).
What's interesting is that there are some cadets who graduate above ensign. Saavik appeared to be a cadet-lieutenant in TWOK and then a full lieutenant in TSFS. Same with Uhura in ST 09.
When Nog is assigned to DS9 in "The Ascent", it prompts Sisko to reminisce about his own second year field studies at Starbase 137. The way he talks about it implies that it's a regular part of the Academy curriculum.
Most likely this was all part of Adm. Leyton's conspiracy. Including the very existence of Red Squad itself...
That would be an interesting trick. The Valiant was first launched three months after Leyton's failed coup (which presumably resulted in his court-martial and imprisonment) and it didn't get turned over to Red Squad until over a year after that. The only way Leyton could be involved is if he's launching starships and assigning crew to them from prison. If the Federation is giving that kind of power to a convict doing time for an attempted coup, they really do have problems.