High Hopes
The leave entitlement that you are alluding to is for when you are at the college... where you will be working office hours!
Afterwards, you will work shifts... either 6 on 4 off or 6 on 3 off (non 24hr units).
As soon as you join a unit, you will go onto the watch roster. You will then be entitled to 28 days leave plus 8 days BH (36 days leave), rising to 33 days leave plus 8 days bank holiday (41 days leave) on the tenth anniversary of your starting date with NATS.
You will be allocated a month of the year in which your leave will be counted from (i.e. your 'leave year') This is done alphabetically and is just for administrative purposes.
When you first join a unit after the college, you should be told when your leave year runs from (you may already be half way through it by this point), and also how many days you are entitled to until the end of your year. These days will be done on a pro rata basis, depending on how long in the leave year you have to go.
Looking at it simplistically, you are correct when you state that if you count the hours you will do roughly the same as an office worker. For a 30 day month an office worker working 9-5 can expect to work 21 days at 7 hours a day = 147 hours. In the same period, an ATCO on the 10 day pattern will work 18 days = 144 hours.
Another way of looking at it.
Office worker 4 weeks off, works 48 weeks a year, 5 days a week = 240 days, minus 8 days BH = 232 days a year worked
ATCO on 10 day pattern works (365/10) * 6 = 219 days, minus 33 days leave (after 10yrs), minus 8 days BH = 178 days a year worked
All this needs to be further quantified by the fact that on the last 2 days of your cycle you either do nights or spins... if nights, then you sleep for some of it (although you still are away from home)... if you do not get rostered for nights, then you will 'spin' onto another watch for 2 days to supplement their numbers. You can expect (although it is a privelege, not a right) to be sent home earliy on your spins... you will certainly be one of the first out of the door.
So hours wise you ar ecorrect, but that is down to ATCOs working shifts that are 7,8, and 9 hours long. During those days, about 30% of the time you will be on a break.
Having worked all sorts of hours and shifts in different employs, I can assure you that working this shift system and cramming the hours into less days is preferable.... I would rathert attend work an extra hour or 2 a day and end up with an extra 56 days off!!
But High hopes, I am sure you are just asking for clarification, but I do hope that you are not weighing up the job of an ATCO against the job of an office worker based on leave entitlement before you decide which to go for. You have to want to succeed to get through training... a few extra days off will not give you the motivation that you require!!
Good Luck