My late brother was a National Service pilot, then stayed in on a regular commission until age 38. He had done 1 year as a UAS student before starting NS. He went first, about October 1955, to Kirton in Lindsey for about 3-4 months for the ITS course (initial officer training), and at the end of that he was commissioned as Acting Pilot Officer. He was then among a group that went to Canada on the NATO pilot training scheme; others on his course included Italians, Belgians, Danes, and perhaps others. They did about 9 months on the Harvard at Penhold, Alberta, followed by 6 months on the T-33A at Gimli, Manitoba. He was fairly unimpressed by the standard of training; all his RAF contemporaries with no previous flying experience failed the Harvard course.
They crossed the Atlantic by sea; just before coming home, they learned of the Sandys Defence White Paper and the huge imminent changes it brought.