You get breaks between 'Phases'. I am not certain how it is still arranged but you do the forst 6 or so weeks of pure theory, have a week off, do sim which I think is these days broken into basic and advanced or something with a week off and a week off after that. The actual day length may vary. In those times between phases you will also go onto field famil so the breaks are a couple of weeks. They try and have you come out of the college to the field with no rec leave liability. As for taking a couple of weeks where you see fit, don't count on it, the course is not going to wait for you.
This of courrse may be different but this is what I gather from the people drifting through from the college of late. I think you will only get 5 weeks leave as you are not working doggos.
As a trainee, you will be 'Stood down' over any public holidays meaning you do not get the extra pay that you would if you worked it or were rostered as OFF and you will also have the Chhristmas Standown as described below available to you. This means you take a couple of days rec and have the whole lot off.
mikepom, I would not go booking flights just yet.
From my understanding this has changed quite a lot.
You will get all public holidays off while at the college, They have done away with the couple of weeks of field famil, you now have to organise this yourself in spare time. There is no longer any break between phases.
The only time you will get off other than the public holidays is a few days of rec leave to complete the ~10-14 christmas stand down.
Depending on sim slots in the field you will most likely get a week between finishing at the college and starting in the field (you may have quite a lot more time available for leave
).
While at the college you only accrue 4 weeks of leave per year as it is only day shift, they do not seem to have a problem with you having a leave balance when you come over.