Hi everyone,
I have recently started looking into everything surrounding this line of work and have a couple of queries if anyone has the answers!
I know the trainee salary has been discussed on previous pages but just looking to see if anyone has any updated information.
Basically, the base trainee salary would be less than half of my current wage and I live around eight hours drive from the training college so would obviously need to relocate during that process - I would need to continue to pay for my mortgage/bills etc at home too though.
I was just looking to see if anyone knew how long you are on the initial salary plus the £7000 (ish) accommodation expenses per year. Does this level of salary continue until you are fully qualified? So around two - three years? And do you continue to get the accommodation payment after leaving the training centre?
Once you are fully qualified what do increments generally tend to look like - I know this will depend on where you work etc but just looking for a rough guide.
It is a line of work I would love to become involved in, but obviously a lot to weigh up. I think I could just about get by nine months of the basic salary and living away - even if I was lucky enough to be placed at a unit near my home in the west of Scotland I think I could just about continue at that level of earnings but anything outwith that and I think it would be impossible sadly.
Huge IF questions as I appreciate how hard it is to get selected anyway, but better to look at all the practicalities now!
Any help would be greatly appreciated
You're on the training salary until you arrive at a unit. Then, if I remember correctly and I'm prepared to be wrong on this, you lose the living allowance, but you gain the anti-social hours payment which is very similar to the living allowance. Your salary does go up by a few thousand too. However, it's unlikely that your college journey would be smooth. You may well fail a stage or end up holding whilst the course ahead of you finishes their course and then your 9 months at the college is suddenly 12 or longer.
Regarding location, you can be sent wherever the company needs you. You can put in preferences, but ultimately if they want you as a tower controller at Southampton that's where you're going regardless of where the rest of your family is. The majority of people will either end up at Swanwick or Prestwick though as that's where they have the most controllers and obviously need the most too. Again, there's little choice - it'll be where the business needs you.
In terms of annual increments, it depends on where you are. They all start around the £40k mark and go up from there. Working at the busier units will leave you on well over £100k by the time you reach the top of the pay scale