This thread was only one page long when last I looked! Seems to have got a tad heated since then...
So, sticking to the facts. Here they are as I see them.
1) Only if you've been to BOTH university and CATC/some other ATC training establishment do you really know if a degree is worth it. I wouldn't be without mine. My only regret concerning the degree is that I successfully applealed the the result and got a lower second (a Desmond to those in the know, or a drinking man's first). Had I kept the third class degree I was originally awarded for my services to the brewing industry, I would be dining out on the fact to this day. I gather Oxford used to give 4th class degrees, and you had to be a really special drinker to get one of those.
2) A degree is of no particular value to operational ATC. If anything, ATC college exams are closer in style to school exams, or at least to school exams in my day when we learned about things other than lesbian parenthood and rehoming of injured foxes.
3) The drop-out rate at CATC or whatever the **** it's called these days is considerable, and the drop-out rate at units of first posting is higher still, so a fall-back option is well worth considering. That's not to say it wouldn't be possible to do a degree AFTER going to CATC if you were unsuccessful in training.
4) ATC is not the job it used to be. A watch manager at a NATS unit sent me an email a few days ago, and he is genuinely worried about his pension after 30+ years of service, and deeply concerned about the "thought police" aspects of the new corporate culture. The day will likely come when NATS introduces individual rostering in order to work every ATCO to their contractual hours and do away with the resultant surplus staff. Again, a fall-back is not a bad idea.
5) Potential recruits should try getting invited to all-ATC parties. Just see how much of the conversation is about work! It is really, really difficult to even turn the conversation to sh*gg*ng at an all-ATC party! Unless of course, the talk is of who is being sh*gg*d by management and what precisely that person would or should do to sh*g the manager in return. For those about to attend such a party, my suggestion is a cactus and some KY jelly. For serious overuse of management-speak, omit the KY.
6) Ultimately, it all comes down to personal choice. Of course, getting into NATS as a trainee is hardly a certainty even for someone with all the right ticks in the right boxes, so if you're in a position to apply to uni you should do so anyway. I wouldn't be without the uni experience for anything. What I can remember of it was great.
