Spitoon –
Taken within the context of this thread, your first paragraph is a strong argument in favour of ATSA licensing. However, you then go on to say that ATC ATSAs (and ATCOs) do not really “need” licences. This would carry more weight if there were another alternative REGULATED method by which standards could be maintained. As far as I am aware, there isn’t, so licensing plus annual LCEs it will remain until another "non-licensed" method of maintaining standards ACROSS ALL GRADES is devised and implemented.
The important point is that licensing must, and does, fulfil its prime purpose, which is to be the “machinery” by which competency and safety standards are regularly checked and maintained. If improvement of these standards result as a by-product of such assessments, then so much the better. This is the crux of the debate/proposal concerning ATSA licensing – the issues over pay awards, who will be LCE/OJTIs etc are all side issues which can be addressed separately. If it can be reasoned that annual competency checks for ATSAs could be genuinely beneficial to the overall provision and standard of the ATC service, then that makes a good case for considering implementation of licensing for ATSAs.
I would be inclined to agree with your statement that ATCOs “certainly should be able to” do ATSA tasks – but by experience from what I have seen at my own Station, most ATCOs (with a few notable exceptions) have no more than a basic knowledge or passing interest in our tasks, let alone the detailed knowledge (and therefore the competency?) to be able to do them correctly.
I would be very interested to hear your ideas on how ATCO/ATSA competency can be checked (regulated?) at local (Unit) level; or how exactly it has “been done better by some Units” if it is not by annual LCE checks.