The exchange program promotes senior leadership and it prepares cadets to take roles as staff cadets. At Connaught, all exchange cadets are held to the same standard as staff cadets, and on the course reports it deals with your leadership and management skills.
The exchanges all have cadet activities, adventure training, and cultural activities. The amount of those depend on the length of your exchange and what country you are visiting. The 3 UK exchanges (OBS, MLE, OBW) have two weeks of British cadet training, a week of adventure training, and a week and a bit doing cultural activities. Germany does not have a cadet program, so exchange cadets are hosted by their military so they do a fair amount of military training, as well as adventure training, and cultural activities. The ACE exchanges are a wee bit different, they are much shorter and this prevents them from doing as much as the other 6 and 5 week exchanges. USA rotates every year between SCUBA trg and Survival School in Utah. The other ACE exchanges- Sweden, Denmark, Italy, Austria, Holland, and South Korea are much more cultural touring/ adventure training than military training but they all do a least a day or two of at least shooting.
The key thing is that they are meant to be fun and provide senior (deserving) army cadets an experience of a life time...and they do. They have a little bit of everything in them, so if anyone gets a chance to do any exchange they should jump on it- even if it is one they did not apply for.