Confict of Interest
Hi there,
First things first, I think you really need to sort out where your priorities lie. Joining the RAF as a commissioned officer is not something to be taken on lightly, and in the current service climate should certainly not be used as a stepping stone to something else!!!! If you are not fully committed to the RAF when you go to OASC you will not be selected, simple as that.
As far as NATS goes, you can apply for their Trainee ATCO scheme up to age 29, during which you get paid a salary and they pay for all your ratings and CAA licence. If you were to join the RAF as an ATCO, none of the training that you undertake is transferrable to NATS (Apart from a couple of written exam expemtions). You would then, upon leaving the RAF, have to fund your own CAA Ratings courses (not cheap!), unless you can convince NATS to partially sponsor you and offer you a job. (Again not a walk in the park)
My advice would be that if you want to join NATS, do it now and apply for the Trainee ATCO programme. If you want to join the RAF, none of the branches that you would be looking to go into will be taken into account you when it comes to gaining a CAA ATCO licence.
Last edited by Ops and Mops; 17th April 2005 at 15:31.