Are awards such as the Duke of Edinburgh Award beneficial when applying?

[CJCymru]

Hello (sorry it's a long post, it ended up much longer than I had intended to)

I have just finished sixth form, and I have been planning applying for Air Traffic Control for about three years now. Last May, career advisers came in from a lot of different backgrounds. One who inspired my quite a bit, was an RAF Officer, and he gave us a full speech on the RAF.

My mate asked him what chance would he have of joining and becoming a Pilot in the RAF, and the Officer replied something like "Well if you don't sit home doing nothing except watching TV everyday, you have a good chance." He then asked if there were any like Sport Athletes in the class, and conveniently there was a guy who did a lot of running for the country and also a rugby team captain. He said they are the ones who have a better chance of doing well in the RAF.

So anyway, as I've said, I'd like to apply for the NATS soon. I've done a lot of reading on the NATS career site, and also ordered a book from Amazon written by Graham Duke. But I'm slightly worried about what things to put down on the application form to groove that I'm an outgoing person.

Things I can think of are:

Welsh Baccalaureate which is an A-Level where you do 30 hours of voluntary work and also travel across the country to listen to important people, and also people come in to the school to make speeches about various things and we have to write a full report on what they say.

Summer School I went to in the Summer of 2008 along with 30 other lucky students. There were 30 people on the course, and we all had to design a build something electronics that mainly used lasers that didn't already exist and could change the world. I was one of the weakest on the course, but I did manage to build a system that cars could use to let the drivers know the right distance they need to be from the car in front. Then I had to present it in front of about a hundred people with a PowerPoint presentation at the end of the 6 weeks. This gave me a Gold Crest Award.

I play indoor five a side every Thursday night.

And I also play badminton every Friday night.

But I don't feel this would be enough, I've been looking into the Duke of Edinburgh Award. There's a Bronze, Silver and Gold Award for it. On the Gold one which I'm planning on doing, you have to do 12 months of voluntary work, train and complete a 4 day, 3 night expedition, and undertake a shared activity in a residential setting away from home for 5 days and 4 nights. So Apparently this is quite good to put down for the RAF. Would be beneficial when applying for NATS?

[HEATHROW DIRECTOR]

Put down all qualifications... Pity you have none remotely connected with aviation, which might be of benefit. E.g. Air cadets, PPL training, aviation enthusiast, part-time work at local airfield, etc....?? However, there are plenty of ATCOs who had no such qualifications so don't give up.

Good luck

[italia458]

Honestly, for the amount of time required and commitment for doing the Duke of Edinburgh, it might not be worth it. It kind of depends what activities you are currently doing right now. Like Heathrow said, air cadets and other aviation related stuff would be a big bonus I'd say. I was an air cadet and got my glider and private pilot's license through there on scholarship. it's quite a good program! we had the option of doing the Duke of Ed program but hardly any cadets I knew did it. To me it wasn't worth it and I don't think, at least in Canada, it's that well known and you probably won't get the credit you deserve for it.

If you really want to get into ATC there's nothing really better than actually knowing regulations and information about being a controller. Having a pilot background is a big bonus I'd say as you will be able to relate to pilots and know what they can and can't do. It will help you to make sure you don't give a clearance to an aircraft that he's evidently going to refuse. It also gives you some basic information and the air laws and who has right of way, etc. The more you know about that I'm sure you can bring that up in your interview. Go and get a good on being a controller. You can probably google an ATC course study manual, buy it and read it. Maybe even study for an exam and write an ATC exam and bring that in to the interview or include it with your application. If you get a good score on that and you haven't even been accepted, I'd let you in the course if I was program director!

[Legalapproach]

Try and get some work experience. If you have an airfield nearby see if you can go and spend a few days sitting in the tower/radar room etc seeing what actually goes on. It shows you are keen and that you actually know something about the job and still want to do it. Every year I arrange work experience for a number of sixth formers and this seems to be very much in vogue.

[Scooby Don't]

The sporty stuff is good to do anyway, as is the D of E Award Scheme. As a CV builder though, it has more application to the RAF than to civil ATC. The reason is that the RAF is picking officers (and senior NCOs for ATC, but your mate's question was about being a pilot, and they are all officers) first and foremost. Their specific branch, and thus profession, is secondary.

Having said that, if I were a recruiter for NATS I'd also be more impressed, all else being equal, with a candidate who was active in sports and community activities rather than simply watching TV and surfing the 'net. More important in the long run is what those activities do for you. If they help you grow as a person, experience more from life and help others, you will have a fuller life whether or not you get into ATC.

It sounds to me as if you have a pretty full calendar already so though I would suggest a refresher on English (that is friendly advice; please, no flaming), I see no reason why you wouldn't put the interviewers in a positive frame of mind before the interview starts. Have a look at the NATS website and maybe some of the overseas ATS providers, for example DFS of Germany, for samples of the type of testing that is purely pass or fail and comes before an interview.

Good luck. :ok:

[ZOOKER]

Scooby,
surely the people that NATS seeks to recruit are also Officers.
- Air Traffic Control Officers. - i.e. ATCOs.

[mingmongaloo]

That's just being pedantic.

[cdtaylor_nats]

I would leave out the bit about voluntary work or you will spend the whole interview explaining to the ATCO about the concept of working for nothing.

[GBOACdave]

surely the people that NATS seeks to recruit are also Officers.
- Air Traffic Control Officers. - i.e. ATCOs.

Not true. Same word, totally different meaning.

[Legalapproach]

Oh, and don't mention you spend your evenings on PPRUNE

[tomtom_91]

D of E certainly worth a mention!

Team work
Problem Solving
Taking on new challenges
Voluntary Work
New hobbies

Its all good!

Tom

[Roffa]

Oh, and don't mention you spend your evenings on PPRuNe

Why not, the NATS CEO mentions it on the company intranet.

Might be a good discussion point.

[lemony]

Personally I'd say don't worry about all of that!

My initial application only contained my qualifications and my contact details the bare minimum you can put in. The main thing they are looking for is that you have the aptitude to do the job, not what you always do, although extra activites will help you in your interview, however if you prep well enough you will find things in your daily life that are acceptable to demonstrate competence without haveing to go to the effort of taking up extra activities just to do this.

A massive help to me was the part-time job I had whilst studying, nothing to do with aviation in the slightest but it helps immensely, especially when they start asking you about teamwork etc... I'd say 80% of my answers were related directly to my working life, and the rest towards my education.

Hope this helps you in your application, and the paper application to me is purely to see if you have the minimum academic credentials and nothing more. (Oh and I passed all selection stages)

[lemony]

I mentioned PPruNe in my interview and it didnt go down badly.

All the points tomtom_91 mentions are good, but if you can find examples away from D of E it then its all good, if not then definately consider it.

[Atcham Tower]

Some years ago, a friend of my son's rode a bike across India. This, he believes, greatly impressed the NATS interviewers and he was promptly accepted. That and a reference from me, a long-serving ATCO :)

Dave Smith
Author - Air Traffic Control Handbook. (Shameless plug - see Amazon!)

[Minesthechevy]

My 2p's worth -

1. Learn to edit.

2. Put down everything that you've ever done; guys your age haven't done much yet, so you have to make your application stand out.

3. Do NOT put any mention of things that you might do or intend doing, unless you have been accepted on such-and-such a course and have yet to start it.

4. Don't commit yourself to a DofE just to make it look good on paper, but don't be put off it if you really want to do it for yourself.

[chevvron]

When I was at school, and in my Air Training Corps days, the ATC Gliding Certificate fulfilled one section of D of E. Extrapolating from this, you could always start by getting yourself an Air/Ground Radio Operators certificate and 'claim' this towards your D of E.
Gaining this certificate would also indicate to you the 'work' involved in even this basic qualification, and I'm sure having one when you apply to NATS would help.
Ask your D of E tutor about it, they should be able to advise.