"The interesting thing is that staffing in the Tower is pretty good and APP/DEP is short, yet the Tower has had (or will have) 6 trainees this year, whilst only 2 or 3 have gone to APP/DEP.
Go figure - I am sure it makes sense to someone."
Keepemseparated - is it an aptitude thing? Not saying that APP is harder than TWR or vice versa. Having been multi-rated in the RAAF I believe some people are better suited to the TWR environment, and others to APP. Some are good at both and some of course, well, I try not to fly on those days...
Or is it giving ASA too much credit to think that they would assign people to the environment for which they are most suited ... given that they are quite happy to take RAAFies with 10+years of TMA experience (radar environment), put 'em through an enroute short course and then stick them on procedural enroute sectors. 