GATCO have expressed concern that NATS have terminated the training of 122 trainee ATCOs who are now under threat of redundancy or re-deployment, some of them being within 2 weeks of completing training and receiving their Student ATCO licenses.
Long term this could lead to shortages as 'natural wastage' due to retirements, resignations, failure to achieve competency etc occur as traffic picks up in the wake of the slump caused by COVID 19..