Originally Posted by
Flying184
Hi Ft1989
It's really hard to know what will happen. What is clear is the traffic levels that recruitment was carried out for in 2019 clearly are not going to be back for the foreseeable future. Current discussions are at least 3 years, which naturally would have an impact on staffing plans in any industry. But no one has a crystal ball. Nothing has been officially publicly announced around plans for those recruited or currently at the college, and it is right for those individuals to hear first before the general public, whatever the decision. I think some difficult discussions and decisions will take place over the coming weeks and months.
Hopefully sensible decisions are made and rather than simply chop people, keep those successful applicants on file to recall back for training when the demand increases again in a year/2 years/3 years time. Be under no illusion, there will always be a need for trainees in the future with an ageing workforce.
A sense of realism has to be maintained - traffic is currently down 50% across the UK at the busiest time of year. Some airports are down over 85% and I am sure we will see significant changes to the scope of airports on offer in the UK because of the pandemic impact. The demise of Flybe and Thomas Cook, and now a pandemic are major changes and all have had a cumulative effect on the UK aviation and airport scene.
With regards to postings - you must be prepared to go anywhere. Perhaps things are different now, but my course got very little input on choices - there was no "option lists" or "rank the order of units you would like to go to".... we finished our course, a few days later were handed a letter with the unit and start date on it.
Keep strong - don't give up on dreams! Just be prepared to have to wait a bit longer and in the mean time get as much life experience as you can because it will all come in very useful.
Thanks for this. Yeah, I hope that even in the worst case scenario, NATS will invite us back at a point in the (hopefully not-too-distant) future. Especially given the time and cost they've spent through the recruitment process, medicals, security checks etc.