Originally Posted by WetFeet
I have always found it somewhat of an anomaly that one got paid good money to train at college ie whilst being non-productive. If we are totally honest with ourselves, there were, and are, people who came/come in to the job for the money. Some made it and some didn't. Some are now excellent controllers and some are now seeking/doing some other well paid job.
Maybe the new rates will mean that people that come into the profession will do so because they want to do the job, not jus for the money. And maybe that will mean a higher success rate. Maybe not, time will tell.
But let us not forget that is still a good deal compared to some countries that I could name where not only do you not get paid when training at college for your license but you pay for the course! Once qualified you then get that training money back. The incentive through this is the high pay at the end.
And how many pilots have got there by mortgaging themselves to the hilt to get qualified? A lot of them.
Look ahead. Things may be tight initially, but better than some get it, and the end rewards are great.
It will definitely only attract those that ant to do the job and not interested in money. but lets not forget that there will be people out there that are capable of doing the job, but who never get exposed to the possibility of a career in Air Traffic or with NATS due to the lack of careers advice. Air traffic control and NATS never attended any careers fairs that i went to at school or at university. My school careers officer probably never new what an Air traffic controller did, and would have been completely unable to offer any advice about how to get into it.
When i was training i was asked how NATS could improve recruitment. My reply was to visit schools and universities and make people aware of the career opportunities. The response I got was that NATS was happy to survive from applicants gaining an interest in the job from word of mouth from family friends, or being attracted by the money.
In order to attract applicants with a genuine interest in the job then the career needs to be publicised more within schools, universities and in career offices generally. I say publicise the career and not the money that goes with it, by doing this if someone was interested then they would have to do research to find out about pay, companies they could work for etc.. a good test of motivation