ATC Recruitment in Australia

[ozpilot]

Hi all,

A friend of mine has been invited to attend recruitment testing for ATC in March in Melbourne. He doesn't currently have access to the internet so I am posting on his behalf here.

He has seen the sample questions provided on the Airservices site, but is after more info. I myself did the testing in the mid-nineties but I suspect things have changed somewhat from then. Just wondering if anyone could give us an idea of the type of questions to expect and the format they are in?

Thanks in advance.

[niknak]

I'm told that they have adopted much the same procedures as NATS in the UK.. .The usual phsycometric and analytical skills tests, followed by interviews. I understand that the interviews will test the very basicknowledge of atc and aircraft performance, so it would be a good idea, (as NATS recommend), to arrange a visit to a local atc tower. Also, the interview will contain a section of questions to which there are no specifically right or wrong answers, they just want to judge the reaction of the candidate. . .All very involved, and the candidates often question the validity of the whole process, but having worked for an organisation who used this process for the selection of its own trainee atco's, it's a reasonably accurate measure (in our experience), of who will pass the courses and who will not.. .Good luck to your mate. <img src="smile.gif" border="0">

[375ml]

For abinitio recruitment there is unlikely to be any acft performance questions although some basic speed/distance/time arithmetic may be called for. Your friend probably received an ATC information pack - he should be familiar with and understand everything there, as there may be questions probing career interest. The format of the testing has changed for this round, but generally speaking speed & accuracy are important, no wild guessing - just skip the question if it's too hard. good luck. BTW he might want to give the union a call before accepting the job in case conditions for new employees are inferior to current employees (not that that could ever happen).

[willadvise]

Try doing a search on ATC Recruitment. There are several old threads which you may find useful.. .Here's a couple for starters.

<a href="http://www.pprune.org/ubb/NonCGI/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic&f=6&t=001014" target="_blank">thread1</a>

<a href="http://www.pprune.org/cgibin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=6&t=000459&p=" target="_blank">thread 2</a>

. .You may also find <a href="http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/radar2001/resources/ATCO1.htm" target="_blank">this web page</a> useful. It is for UK ATC but the sample tests and interview info may be useful. The interview is Aus dont really ask that much technical information but it cant hurt to learn.

I am happy to answer questions by email.

[ 10 February 2002: Message edited by: willadvise ]</p>

[ferris]

At this early stage of the process, I can only advise that the tests are spacial reasoning and time/distance related. As spatial reasoning is a physical quality, you cannot 'study' for it, and in this game you are advised to have it, so don't worry about that aspect. Either you have it or you don't. To prepare mathematically, practice base 60 type questions.

[ozpilot]

Thankyou all for your help. Particularly the links. For his sake, I hope he does well.