Originally Posted by
ATCOnoob1
A lot of recent talk seems to be suggesting that NATS are taking on more trainees. Is it likely their hiring figures (i.e. just 15 out of 3.5k applicants are successful) are now wrong and its actually much higher? I'm a little confused on the direction they seem to be taking - are they simply hiring more people, and possibly lowering the bar to get more people through, or are they taking on more trainees and the dropout rate at the college is higher?
I've got stage 3 in a few weeks and I'm not sure if I should ask questions like this there
NATS want more controllers over the next few years not just more trainees.
They've upped their recruitment drive massively in the past 18/24 months, purely to meet increased demand through retirement etc. I don't necessarily think the figures have changed nor do I think they've made the tests any easier (they're industry standard).
I think it's simply a case of more publicity = more applicants = more successful candidates at the current % success rate.