A little OT but.. there are some Hong Kong guys going through the college at the moment and I found out quite how rigorous their training is.. it's quite insane compared to the UK equivalent although arguably "they way it should be done"
This is the route for area controllers.. (accurate as far as I can remember)
Recruitment, then 2 years as ATSA, then PPL, a 6 month English course, over to Bournemouth for ADI+ADV, APS+procedural, back to HK for 2 years for area instruction, then posted to an area unit for OJT.
If they failed at any point before they went back to HK then they had to pay for all the courses they'd done up until now out of their own pocket(!)
In the opinion of the instructors I asked, they were the most hard working and dedicated trainees they'd ever see and they 'never' failed.
Perhaps we could learn something from their recruitment process..