Wow. I suggest that PPRUNE is not the place to learn about ATC or ATC'ers. The course is not really any different to any other workplace. There isn't the scope to pause everyone's training to head off overseas for a week. If you miss a day, fine you can catch that up. Probably even 2 or 3. A week or more you will have a lot to catch up on. Particularly if you are in the Sim phase, as you can't study that at home.
Most of the college instructor were ATC at one point. Most of the managers you will encounter there were not. I believe the lady in charge of the college is from NAB. Clearly not ex ATC.
As to whether lots of people can do the job, I don't know. The 11 on my course all go through and all eventually got rated. Other courses running concurrently only had pass rates in the vicinity of 50%.
As to work life balance, if you chose not to do overtime you can, but the company will want an reason based on our agreement.