I started the C&G 7282 Aviation Studies and lost sight along the way.
Although this might sound contradictory, I got the impression it was either too simple, or too obscure, with no middle ground. For example, listing the characteristics required when building a new airfield - they wanted stuff like 'flat ground', 'prevailing wind for runway direction' - I guess if you're a beginner it's handy, but I'm not and neither am I Wimpey !
When they mailed me a model of a 757 and a tape with ATC chatter on it, my alarm bells started ringing. When I got to the jet engine stuff, whilst on the periphery of the job, they went too in depth I think. Just my opinion.
One thing that annoyed me was the condescending way they marked the course work too. It's fairly trivial, but they wouldn't just put 'correct' or 'incorrect' - they insisted on putting standard one-liners like 'that's correct Peter - have another banana' type comments. To me, it smacked of NVQ-itis - a tick in the box but a waste of time.
I didn't go on to the Despatchers stuff, as that was £500 more and I was put of by the Aviation Studies bit. If you haven't done any Ops type stuff before you may find it, at best, interesting, but in practical terms you wouldn't get much cred with it I don't think. I know a few people who did it too and they didn't appear to have any doors opened by doing it. The CAA thing mentioned in an earlier post seems much more like the way ahead.
The only other thing I'll add, in case you're an ab-initio, is Ops Despatcher type stuff is often hard to quantify with a wide-ranging course. Certainly in the military all you do is a basic course then a load of on-the-job training. Now, here's a thought - I know the Royal Auxiliary Air Force now train Flight Ops Assistants at weekends. You actually get paid to learn and get a grounding in Ops that you could use as a basis for future civvy employment. No guarantees of course, but if you want to know what Ops is about, this could be an opening. The certificate at the end doesn't count for anything in civvy street (as usual !) but it will save you going to Monarch and asking what Ops is in the interview ! It's fundamentally the same but they make money !
