Originally Posted by
sunnySA
There is no single problem, no single solution. Unfortunately Airservices sees training as a cost and not as an investment. They try to do things on the cheap eg not paying accommodation for ATC trainees at the College. This is an organisation that has trained their own staff for 50 or 60 years, sometimes in large numbers. You'd think they would've refined their processes but no, they chop and change. Changes to their selection processes, changes to where and how they trained (Melbourne, Brisbane, UTOL, Bath and now Christchurch). At one point they were licenced to use the NZ selection processes but couldn't help themselves and senior management started tinkering with it by adding non-ATC components There is a whole thread on the AsA ATC recruitment elsewhere on pprune, nearly 2million views.
The market for ATCs is tight, other career choices are made, and then AsA decided they'd recruit from overseas using 457 visas. In 2019/2020, Sydney Tower had 5 staff on 457 visa, none remain. 4 left the organisation and the other is now in management. Airservices have also recruited RAAF ATCs and NZ ATCS in large numbers rather than abinitio trainees. No single pathway is the answer, but consistent recruiting (and knowing the target audience) is important. If you stop training for a period, 6 months, 12 months then you erode your capacity to train, the corporate knowledge drifts away and you have to re-start. Run a minimum number of courses each and every year, and either add an extra 2 or 4 to the course once in a while, or add an another course once in a while.
In the past too many trainees have been sent to the field "oh, we'll give them the benefit of the doubt", "the field can sort them out". Wrong, a lack of consistent and fair processes, and a lack of management confidence and support to make the correct decision.
Final field training should be just that, endorsement training for the specific location, specific sector group ie a sector group that does a lot of holding and vector, a sector group that does a lot of surveillance of aircraft on the cruise. AsA has Enroute and Tower simulators but to be most effective they need massive resources to ensure that the data is current and relevant, and SME available to check the exercises. ATC is pretty simple and in many ways AsA complicate things with different procedures in BN and ML airspaces. And the Towers too, lack of standardisation in many areas. All this makes it more difficult.
And then there are blacklists. Former staff have applied to return but been denied, not even getting an interview. Vindictiveness (the quality or an act of showing a wish to harm someone because you think they have harmed you). And even if former staff do return they are placed on a much lower pay scale than when they left ($40K).
Thread drift and the above response is largely subjective, there's probably a thesis in plotting when, why, who etc.