Bearcat - unfortunately (not having seen the 360 deg sim
) I don't think that the ATC sims available are good enough to take a trainee controller from zero experience to nearly or indeed valid.
I know that the aircraft sims are pretty much good enough to complete a pilot's training which is why you probably don't get why we are unable to do this in ATC.
You have the "luxury" of not allowing a newly trained FO to not land the aircraft in tricky wind conditions etc as the Captain would take the aircraft at this point, and the FO would learn from the experience. As a newly valid controller, you're it - there is no one available to sit in and help out with tricky situations as you're trained up. So the trainee has to be allowed to make mistakes and recover from them. Most frequencys have trainees these days, you just may not be aware of it!
Please feel free to contact the ATC at your base as I'm sure they would be more than happy to show you around - or if you have a few hours then to sit in and watch.
We had some chaps who were on a stand by duty come into ATC for a few hours and really found it useful as it gave them a useful perspective on how ATC think.
louby