work as ATCO in UK

[TOTO34]

Hello,
I sent 4 e-mails to NATS but no reply!!!
I am a Belgian air traffic controller and I just wish to know if I can work in UK as Air traffic controller and if it is YES!
How to proceed?
Thanks in advance for your help.

[chevvron]

You will need to hold an ATCO Licence which is recognised by the CAA. If you do not, you will need to do an Assessment of Prior Competence (APC) by a recognised training organisation prior to employment as an ATCO in the UK or Gibraltar.
Why move to the UK anyway? Although the salary may be attractive, the cost of living is far higher than most EC Countries, especially with the present government which seems intent on taxing as much money as possible from 'middle income' professionals and low earners eg petrol at 1.4 euro's/litre of which over 60% goes to the government in taxes.

[Spitoon]

Good to see NATS are so responsive to professional enquiries.

I guess you'll have one of these new common European licenses. Theoretically this should male the process easier, well, a little easier. I'm not sure whether you would need to hold a licence issued by the CAA (because I think the European licence is supposed to be recognised by all EU States) but the people who can probably tell you the definitive answer are the CAA ATC licensing people at Gatwick - contact info here (http://www.caa.co.uk/default.aspx?catid=43&pagetype=90&pageid=6115).

[chevvron]

Spitoon: I'm not surprised especially when you see how they treated Talkdownman.(NATS HR that is)

[niknak]

Totto

In the UK, NATS is the minority ATC provider, many regional airfields are run by independant companies on behalf of the local council authorities and employ their own ATC staff.

NATS have the contract to provide ATC staff at Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted, Southampton, Luton, Farnborough, Cardiff, Birmingham, Manchester, Belfast Aldergrove, Glasgow, and Edinburgh, as well as en route ATCC at Swanwick and Prestwick.

However, there are many more independent regional airports in the UK, and although NATS pay well, all their airports are in the region of large cities and the cost of living is a lot higher.
I know for a fact that I have a far better quality of life than many NATS ATCOs, that's what comes from taking the risk of a slightly lower salary with an employer who knows who knows how to look after its staff, living in a rural area only 15 mins from work but only an hour and a half from London, and being able to afford to buy a house, which in the South, would stretch the salary of a Watch Manager.

As Chevron says, you would have to prove yourself to the CAA, but once you've done that, I would only consider NATS if you wanted to do area control or airports outside the London/Manchester area.

[PPRuNe Radar]

NATS also do Aberdeen and Bristol.

I would only consider NATS if you wanted to do area control or airports outside the London/Manchester area.

Don't quite understand that. If I wanted to work at say Newcastle (which is outside London/Manchester area), then I should consider NATS (who don't provide the ATS there) :confused: ??

[SINGAPURCANAC]

I have one question connected with this issue.
ESSAR 5 standard for ATCO license should be the same among EU or even within Eurocontrol memeber states? Yes or No?
UK is member of EU and EC? Yes or NO?:confused:
Since I believe that answers are YES, why then ESSAR 5 license is not directly recognized by UK CAA? :ugh:
I have checked UK CAA license regulation recently( those available on web site) and I haven't seen "so many" differences between ESSAR 5 and your regulation.
I will appreciate any reasonable answers.
@ TOTO and others interested,
I had very interesting meeting a few months ago. I spoke with guy who worked for EC in department related with workforce and legal aspects of it. And I asked him about ATCO cases. And he answered that free workforce market hadn't been created for good( well paid,good T&C,etc) jobs! It is just for low paid jobs,because rich European don't want to work those stupid jobs any more, so elite is show goodwill to poor European citizen to take those "prestigious" opportunities.
I have said somewhere before:Best jobs, for our best sons and daughters!
ie.
HEATROW or NOTHING!
that's mine attitude!

[Traffic is...]

I think NATS still also do London City ATC.

[niknak]

London City, I admit to missing that one and I stand corrected.

My point is that non UK nationals, not suprisingly, think that NATS are the the only ATC provider at UK airports, when they are in fact the minority and a better quality of life can, in most cases, but not always, be obtained by working for one of the regional airport operators as opposed to NATS.

[BDiONU]

My point is that non UK nationals, not suprisingly, think that NATS are the the only ATC provider at UK airports,
But the vast and overwhelming majority of ATCO's in the UK are employed by NATS. Circa 800 just at Swanwick compared to about 15 at your average tower? ;)

BD

[TOTO34]

What is the average salary for a atc who don't work for nats?

[BDiONU]

What is the average salary for a atc who don't work for nats?

ATCO's in general are the 10th highest paid group (http://msn.careerbuilder.co.uk/UK/Custom/MSN/ViewArticle.aspx?articleid=140&SiteId=int_ukmsn_a140hp&sc_extcmp=int_ukmsn_a140ty&cbRecursionCnt=1&cbsid=607a0c49119e4b59bdb6655a43428cba-256978316-KG-5)in the UK!

BD

[PPRuNe Radar]

Interesting link BDiONU.

There must be a lot of poorly paid ATCOs out there to counter the Band 5 salaries of the many at the top !!!

[BDiONU]

There must be a lot of poorly paid ATCOs out there to counter the Band 5 salaries of the many at the top !!!
Hopefully this isn't the cue for yet another banding bunfight :rolleyes: Merely some good ole statistics ;)

BD

[PPRuNe Radar]

Nope, no bun fight intended. It's just with the large numbers on Band 5 (or even Band 4) at salaries way in excess of the stated average, there must mathematically be a hell of a lot on very poor pay around the UK to counter it. :{

[chevvron]

They're called Band 1 or 2 units in case you haven't noticed.
They're the ones where NATS management have agreed with Prospect that certain types of traffic they handle are not counted when deciding station banding.

[PPRuNe Radar]

And in case you haven't noticed, there are more ANSPs around than NATS.

[BDiONU]

They're called Band 1 or 2 units in case you haven't noticed.
They're the ones where NATS management have agreed with Prospect
I thought Prospect represented the workers and it was the workers who voted, through Prospect, 'for' the banding agreement. Therefore it was the NATS staff themselves who agreed to the current banding scheme. Maybe I misunderstand how unions work.

BD

[chevvron]

NATS units providing LARS had their entire LARS movements disregarded in the banding system because they were deemed 'unquantifiable' in spite of the meticulous stats compiled by each unit.