Originally Posted by
The Many Tentacles
4. Yes
5. It depends - if you end up somewhere quieter then you can be valid a lot quicker than 3 years and then as a result you're doing the same job as someone else at the unit with the same responsibilities as them for half the money. At Swanwick you're probably looking at nearly three years because it's a lot more complex and you need additional conversion training after the college to be able to use the kit. Count on 6 months at least after college before you get to any live training at Swanwick. After your three year anniversary the pay goes up nicely though.
Thanks for clarifying things - that's really useful to know. I had previously wondered if the jump up to the £52k+ bracket was on the
3rd anniversary of validating, which could have been up to 6 years from joining I guess, so it's very helpful to know that isn't the case.
So, it seems the intermediary jump up to £37k is simply to recognise those who manage to validate before the 3rd anniversary (although as you said this effectively means being paid half as much as someone with the same responsibilities, but such is life). However, if I understood things correctly, most people (i.e. where validation occurs close to the 3rd anniversary) aren't on the £37k+ bracket for very long at all.