Originally Posted by
mike current
Where are all these ATCOs going? There aren't that many jobs out there.
NATS are encouraging VRs leaving them short of staff; my theory is it's the beancounters who think getting rid of an experienced controller at the top of the salary scale and replacing them with someone lower down and less experienced is a good idea. Well on paper it might look good, but they forget that once someone completes (say) Area Radar training at the college, they still won't be able to control 'real' trafficon their own for about a year due to the time it takes to complete OJT at an operational unt.
There are jobs out there but both RAF and civil ATC units are short of radar controllers at the moment and however many they train there are inevitably some failures during training. There is of course the privately operated college at Staverton but you have to pay for instruction there and it's not cheap..