Nats Success

[Bumpy]

Hi All

My nephew who is English has been offered a NATS trainee position. He is a talented young man and we're all very proud of his success so far.

How competitive is the competition for these places in the UK. He's explained to me the whole recruitment process but I've only taken it in from a foreign perspective.

Even though he's a graduate he's explained to me it is not a graduate job. Basically what I'm asking guys is how tough is it to get into NATS?

I have a British colleague here who's military and has explained that he must go through my nephews course if he wants to go civil.

thanks all, keep up the good work

[foghorn]

Hi there,

The figures that I've heard are that ~3,000 applicants per year leads to ~120 trainees entering college per year.

For what it's worth I'm just about to start training with NATS and am a graduate too, however as you say this isn't a requirement. I understand that more and more controllers are graduates, but that probably only represents the increase in the number of graduates in the general population due to proportionally more people going to university.

cheers!
foggy.

[HEATHROW DIRECTOR]

The failure rate at the live training stage has always been fairly high - reaching 80% at times at Heathrow. Maybe things have changed in recent times? One problem is that no matter how well a student does at the College of ATC live training is something else and even the best students can have problems. Having a degree makes absolutely no difference I'm afraid.

Not trying to put anyone off, just letting you know the facts..

[MancBoy]

I managed to get in to ATC whilst still awaiting the results of my A-levels. Even though I managed to fail them all in the end, something to do with too many ladies not enough time, it proves that having a degree gives you no advantage whatsoever. I'm still here 12 years later having been valid in both TC and AC. I'm afraid brains doesn't equal controlling ability in our job.

Good luck to your nephew though.