Originally Posted by
chevvron
NATCS' (now NATS) own ATCO Cadets were required to undertake all rating courses at the college of ATC at Hurn and only if successful passing all three rating exams (written, practical, oral) would then progress to an operational unit for training in the field.
Fail 1 rating exam and you had to re-take with no further training.
Fail more than 1 (including a re-sit) you were terminated.(Unlike nowadays, re-coursing was not even contemplated)
Fail more than 1 over the whole 3 years you were terminated.
Units used for training on my course (at least for ADC - nowadays ADV/ADI - training) were all NATS units plus Ronaldsway, Oxford and Jersey; I don't recall anyone off my course being sent to Leeds but I could be wrong as it's nearly 50 years ago.
We started numbering 23 and graduated 16.
One resigned on the last day of the 4 week 'Initial' course.
Four (possibly 5) got terminated when they failed to reach validation standard or failed their validation board.
One simply couldn't take the stress in the second year - used to consume a whole packet of glucose tablets every lecture - and asked to revert back to ATCA (now ATSA) grade.
Much to my surprise, when I was first sent to Farnborough in my 3rd year, one of my 'chopped' colleagues was a tower controller at Fairoaks this beong long before the FISO License was invented.
As for ATCO Cadets being required to undertake airport authority roles, this was due to a 'glut' of trainees in the system in the late '70s or early '80s; there were no training slots in ATC so the aerodrome authority 'used' them instead.
Yes, quite archaic in those days: the licence requirements were the same whoever you worked for, though; when I trained, one attempt, one resit, not allowed to retake within a set time period, the length of which varied depending on the rules at the time. Of course, no point in undertaking a rating course which you'd never be needed to use, even the CAA eventually realised what a waste that was, so rarely did anyone from outside the CAA take an Area rating - although the option was there if you wanted to spend the money. Playing devils advocate, the evidence that some could undertake the rating exams without doing any of the courses, albeit usually with some military experience behind them, makes me wonder whether there was that much value in the old courses? When I went through, they were certainly in need of some radical overhaul, which they duly got, of course.
I wasn't referring to the cadet glut: the role of an ATSA outside the CAA often encompassed working in the briefing room, dealing with the airline ops departments, operations work on the airport, dealing with noise monitoring, & even working in the terminal at times. It was part of the job, rather than fixing a short term problem, & very interesting it was, too.
Quite a few former cadets went on to very successful careers beyond the CAA; similarly, some who were successful through the whole cadetship, didn't amount to anything, or went on to successful careers in other parts of the industry, or even other industries. The cadetship was "a" method of becoming an ATCO, but it wasn't "the" method, & for some, not the best method, either.