As far as the spanish article is concerned, I can give you some insight.
For the last two years air traffic control has had a very high profile in the spanish press... all of it extremely negative. The result is that currently spanish public knows for truth that atc is an absolutely unskilled work that about anybody with a basic grasp on english and some user-level computer skills can perform. Also they do not feel the need to question that apparently you have to work only a few hours a month to get six-digit salaries.
[IRONIC MODE \ OFF]
As a result of all that misinformation, a huge industry has blossomed in order to provide atco trainig. Also on a second order, lots of academies are now offering courses in order to help students to prepare for the selection processes of the aforementioned training centers.
So far, not a single atco has been hired (not even those who made the training at Senasa, which used to train them before normative changes two years ago)... ok, I'm lying... a few AFIS operatives where "upgraded" to atcos through unknown arcane incantations (probably EASA should have a look at that...) at El Hierro (GCHI / VDE) after the spanish government decided to remove atc services both from El Hierro and nearby La Gomera and the inhabitants of the forme staged massive protests. By then the controllers were long gone so the government just "enhanced" the afiso that had been sent there.
The article points to just one of those scams as Astac offered a course in alliance with a spanish private university... after all the time and money spent, turns out that those courses did not conform to european standards and thus are basically worthless.
My sincere recommendation is to stay with the "official" way and avoid shortcuts... they usually tend to take longer and cost more.