As I tend to post a lot in forums, a lot of people will by now know that I'm applying to NATS right now. In other words I'm not an ATCO myself, even though I hope I will one day become one.
I've read a lot of the discussions lately, and this thread is to continue a track from another thread:
Could anyone become a validated and working ATCO?
To see the post that made me start thinking, read:
http://www.pprune.org/6177296-post22.html
Into this question I realise there are a lot of things to factor in.
In reality trainees are given a certain amount of time to validate (400 hours have been mentioned on PPrune), for this question I'm presuming there is infinate amount of time available (well more or less anyway).
To become an ATC today you have to go through a long screening process, but is it possible to take anyone off the street and teach them the work and skill of ATC? Provided offcourse they themself gave it their full effort.
I myself don't know, my guess is that many things can be taught (phraseology for example), but can everyone be taught to think and remain calm in an emergency situation for example?
And if ATC can't be taught? Does that mean it's genetic? If so then in theory one should be able to earn a fortune by replacing the screening process with a DNA-test, right?
