Senior Dispatcher:
Actually, since the written test for the FAA's ADX certificate shares about 98% of its material with the FAA's ATP written test, for all practical intents and purposes (save the actual flying bit) I already have one, thanks...
Not hardly. There is the small matter of the minimum flight time to qualify for an ATP. Then, for an air carrier type rating, B767 for example, there is ground school, then a considerable amount of simulator. And, if it is the first air carrier type, then there must be some airplane time before flying in scheduled operations. If it is a subsequent type rating, then there is IOE with a check airman in line operations.
When I was in student captain class at my airline in 1967 the director of training said, "I can rate a monkey in a DC-9 (the class we were in). Qualifying to fly the line is a very different matter."
Amen to that I say.
As to your riding the jump seat that was easy enough for you. My dispatch office was in New York and I was based in Los Angeles.
The senior director of flight operations at TWA in the 1970s wanted to do away with the dispatch function. He felt captains could do it all quite nicely, coupled with a good company weather department. I felt he was right.
But, politics prevailed.