Thank you.
I think it may be worth my adding a little more background information to my previous post because I may have a biased view - I was one of those rare failures.
Having graduated, I was unable to validate radar at what was then a very quiet SE airport. I was, at the time, an immature and very underconfident 21 years of age and this got in the way of my ability to manage the job. My confidence was further degraded by destructive comments during my training.
I appealed my dismissal but was informed that I was in the wrong job and should find something else more suitable. Eight years later, having done some growing up and having grasped a greater understanding of how to achieve my goals, I validated Heathrow approach in 3 months and 5 days.
My point is that I think individuals need to be managed individually because we all have differing needs, (although I accept that this may be a difficult task in ATC). Clearly I had the ability but the 'one size fits all' system wasn't able to get it out of me. I believe the college course that I did was the right one but that is not the end of the training process - as I think London Mil is suggesting.
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