What about the pay? Is it really as high as some web sites have stated. I mean once you have become an atco in 2-3 years are you really on a minimum of about £40k a year?
It takes 3 years from your start date with Nats to reach that sort of money (in the 45k region including shift allowances etc).
However as a trainee the pay is very low, so it is really a long term investment, especially as an area student, where it takes around 3 years.
At airports there is a chance to reach first validation fairly quickly (even less than 1 year from start of college to valid) and to increase the salary (it goes up to around 30k ish+allowances).
It's been said it's not all about money and that shouldn't be what motivates you, however who says that usually drives a very fancy car
.
Also, I don't think ATCOs do AAVA's (very well paid overtime) purely for the love of Air Traffic
.