If you go Offshore then it's about 50/50 to whether you stay there,or move across.Quite a few have come across,struggled and quit.
TAD....to be fair...there was always a LOT of politics involved in the offshore to approach/tower slide anyway. When I got posted to EGPD straight from the college with my fresh approch/aerodrome course under my belt I got put on offshore...a "new" rating...that had never been mentioned at the college and I would never have chosen as first choice. I was never even given a chance to test myself on approach.
If you sit for a couple of years or more working "quiet" traffic levels on offshore before finally getting to move over to the more manic approach/tower then it is not surprising that the validation rates are not as high as ones who went straight onto the approach/tower side. It would be interesting to see stats of those controllers who struggled to make it...how long had they been on offshore for?
Sitting there getting stale...with no choice in the matter for some was hardly conducive to keep your ATC skills fresh....and the outflow of controllers from Aberdeen for a period was testament to that. Plus...whether it was a union agreement or not...when EGPD hired ex RAF guys to go straight onto APP/Tower...jumping ahead of guys who had been waiting on offshore to train was hardly a great
PR move...and not an example of "working together".
Difficult situation to manage to be fair....there always will be the Offshore/Airport split. And for some ISZ will never be a "desirable" location..NATS has to get numbers for the unit however it can. I hopethe unit continues to thrive despite the internal politics and the complications that the various sectors inside can pose.