ATC IssuesA place where pilots may enter the 'lions den' that is Air Traffic Control in complete safety and find out the answers to all those obscure topics which you always wanted to know the answer to but were afraid to ask.
A friend of mine is looking to apply for the NATS assessment as advertised on their website. As I understand it, if successful then all the training is done at Bournemouth and you are paid during the training.
If you complete the training successfully are you then bonded in for a certain period of time?
Thanks for the speedy response. All the threads I looked through at the top seemed more about the actual assessment.
As a pilot I'm quite taken back that they don't bond you in at all. There's nothing to stop you leaving after a year or so if you find you don't like the job, leaving them with the bill for all the investment they put into you. Perhaps that's just my mentality which is what I've become accustomed to in the pilot world, which is perhaps everything that is wrong with it.
There was quite a few when I was at college that got their ratings and then left to go to non-NATS airports. Bonding seems like a sensible decision tbh.
I'm quite taken back that they don't bond you in at all. There's nothing to stop you leaving after a year or so if you find you don't like the job, leaving them with the bill for all the investment they put into you.
But who in their right mind would actually want to leave NATS? It's such a great organisation, with really high morale, and fantastic opportunities open to all, leaving can't be on anyone's mind surely?
3 years seems very short. If you ended up at Swanwick you'd be lucky to have been valid a year by then. I'd have thought at least 5 would seem more sensible.
