Originally Posted by
NutLoose
SATCO's whipping boy, I defer to your experience, but I would add,
I would refer to post 47, civilian ATC were issued with letters to hand out to crews, indeed they were encouraged and had or used to have a partial PPL included in their course to allow them to experience the other side of the fence and to better understand the implications of their instructions, knowledge can be a life saver.
NATS ATCOs on early ATCO Cadet Courses undertook a full PPL course, plus airways navigation training and a 2 week simulator course with BEA; mine was on Tridents (c1974) but later courses did the '737.