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Any Vacancies?

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Old 4th Oct 2004, 17:12
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Question Any Vacancies?

Does anyone know of any vacancies for air traffic control assistants or places that are willing to train someone to become an ATCO? I have failed in the second round with Nats and now im just waiting until i can apply again.
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Old 4th Oct 2004, 18:14
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training

try eurocontrol at www.eurocontrol.int
Atco training for Maastricht UAC,Netherlands.
I did,no regrets so far
Good luck
Bento
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Old 4th Oct 2004, 19:28
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Check your PM's
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Old 5th Oct 2004, 06:46
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niteflite - If you know of any vacancies please could you PM me with the details too ? Many thanks

Last edited by Squadgy; 5th Oct 2004 at 11:21.
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Old 5th Oct 2004, 07:24
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well you could do it for me too if you felt like it. Quite useful just to see the competition in here too!

J
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Old 5th Oct 2004, 11:13
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Grammar and ATC

I quote

"niteflite - If you know of any vacancies please could you PM myself with the details too ? Many thanks " squadgy

Please could you email ME, ME, ME, not MYSELF

Niteflite may be more likely to do you a favour,and you may be more likely to get the job, if you form sentences correctly.

Just trying to help
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Old 5th Oct 2004, 11:19
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Shermanator, thanks for the advice - edited

I could comment on lack of correct use of capital letters by other hopefuls in abbreviation and start of sentences, but won't

Last edited by Squadgy; 5th Oct 2004 at 11:36.
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Old 5th Oct 2004, 11:53
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Trying getting out a bit more Shermanator. While you're out why not pick up a book entitled "Improve Your Punctuation" or something similar.

Having a bad day today?
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Old 5th Oct 2004, 15:48
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General hints and tips

This is becoming a bit of a recurring topic here on PPRuNe so I'll do my best (with a little help) to answer some of the ATSA to ATCO related queries that pop up from time to time.

As far as I know, and as a general rule only, ATSA vacancies aren't often openly published as there are usually more than enough candidates internally to fill the posts in any given ATS provider's organisation.

Certainly that's normally the case normally within NATS anyway.

Apart from that is, simulator staff - a more than useful foot in the door and hitch up onto the first rung of the ladder, for those interested.

These Sim staff vacancy notices are often passed to the job centre, or employment service office, or Pauline's Pens (or whatever it's called these days) and are based down at the college, at Swanwick (where there's been an awful lot of recruitment on this front lately), at Manchester and at Scottish.

Staff tend to use the Sim role as a stepping stone and move on to other roles within the ATSA grade or within NATS as a whole. There is, therefore, a high turnover of staff in the grade and thusly more chance of a vacancy arising.

The best way to get your name in the frame for any non-ATCO ATC job is of course the tried and tested "current cv to the SATCO / Personnel Department with enthusiastic covering letter" method.

Addresses are easy to come by when you've got t'internet and a bit of initiative.

It amazes me actually that more people don't think immediately just to rattle off as many cvs as they possibly can to the units up and down the land. It's the quickest, cheapest and most thourough way of discovering what is and isn't available, where. And what's more it shows initiative, willing, enthusiasm, and that someone has actually taken the time and effort to demonstrate a keen interest in the job - as opposed to sitting back and waiting for the vacancy notices to slowly appear like drips from a leaky tap.

A few other general pointers for anyone thinking of pursuing this route :

1) NATS do not train their assistants to become ATCOs in the way that some of the other airfields do. Internal candidates have to go through the same application and recruitment tests and procedures as the rest of us poor buggers did. So, anyone thinking of the easy and automatic ATSA-ATCO route with NATS is barking up the wrong tree I'm afraid. That said and importantly, if you can enter onto your forms that you've been an ATSA with NATS for blah blah years then it's clearly going to be very very beneficial to your application.

2) NATS ATSA recruitment for external candidates is generally done through the Employment Service wherever vacancies arise and also through the centralised recruitment bods, as found on the NATS website
( http://www.nats.co.uk/recruitment/index.html )

3) For non-NATS units I'm sure the person to write to would be the SATCO or the Personnel Officer at the unit in question. A list of airport addresses can be found here : http://www.a2btravel.com/airports/ . Thanks to spekesoftly for that

I should point out at this stage that I believe it's usually the case that people based locally to a unit are looked upon rather more preferentially than those applying from some distance. So try your local airfields first before thinking on a national scale.

4) I think what MissManchester indirectly refers to is ATS providers who cream off the crop of their assistant staff to become ATCOs, training them on the job, and putting them through the CATC courses, sometimes in return for some sort of retainer or reduced salary. It's a frequently asked question here so, the airfields that I'm aware of that have recently, or at some point in the past organised such a scheme for their assistant good eggs, are :

Nottingham East Midlands Airport
Liverpool John Lennon (although no such scheme exists at the moment - ATCOs are recruited directly)
Leeds Bradford
Hawarden
Warton
Bournemouth
Norwich (again, there are no plans at the moment for an ATCA - ATCO training programme)
Teeside

Obviously there's a North West bias there (for obvious reasons) so perhaps anyone else passing by this thread would like to add any I've missed out?

As for you in particular MissManchester, you may find some places are rather reluctant to employ you as an ATSA/ATCA if you're so openly using it as just something to pass the time before you re-apply for your cadetship. It may suit others down to the ground however so the trick for you, and those thinking like you, is to find an airfield or unit that will support you and understand your long term career goals.

NATS are more than keen for their assistant staff to take up the ATCO route but, as I said earlier, you will receive no favourable treatment when it comes to testing and interviewing time.

It may be worth trying other ATC related jobs too of course, between tests. Experience as a FISO for example would be invaluable in this respect. Locally, Barton have excellent ATC staff and their new recruits used to pop into Manch to do their exams - but I haven't seen them for a good while?

I hope this helps someone out there in wannabee land in some way

And, on a final note, my good friend and colleague Shermanator is absolutely and totally correct in what he says (for a change ). Do take care with your speeling, grammer and puncturation, like what I do. Nothing beasts a well writen sentence even if myself does say so Seriously though, having trawled through applications in a former life, it is something from which you can tell a great deal about a person, so do take care.

Last edited by bagpuss lives; 6th Oct 2004 at 14:33.
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Old 5th Oct 2004, 15:57
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niteflite - really appreciate this, thanks.

Barton have excellent ATC staff and their new recruits used to pop into Manch to do their exams - but I haven't seen them for a good while?
Thanks for the complement Our trainee FISOs don't come to Manchester anymore for the written exams as the CAA say they now have to be done in London (Gatwick/ Kingsway I think). You may however still catch us on a visit to Appr on occasion!

If anyone is interested in FISOing drop me a PM, however vacancies are few and far between.
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Old 5th Oct 2004, 15:57
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thank u!!! thats much appreciated! Im currently in the process of putting a letter together...so i presume u dont advise to make it known that this is just something u wannna do inbetween waiting to apply to NATS again?
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Old 5th Oct 2004, 16:05
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MissManchester

I would say that it may be unwise of you to be so direct about it with certain employers who are looking for long term ATSA staff.

Simply state (better than I'm about to) that you're ambitious, driven, highly motivated and seek to better yourself at every available opportunity. The worse thing you could do on any application and during any interview is to lie and say that you're not interested at all however.

Just don't be so direct and demeaning about it

Oh and Squadgy, check your PMs....
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Old 5th Oct 2004, 16:08
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cheers! i actually looked around man atc unit in may/june. And someone there told me about this website... could have bin u!
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Old 5th Oct 2004, 19:10
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Niteflite,

ATSAs from both Bournemouth and Norwich were on my course, although that was in '98.
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Old 5th Oct 2004, 19:17
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Cheers Gonzo, I've plonked them on the list along with Teeside.

In wonder if Bournemouth ATC still have that fine pot plant collection up in the VCR?

I seem to remember a fine cacti too.
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Old 6th Oct 2004, 07:08
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Nothing useful to add

Just wanted to -

A) Pat Niteflite on the back for the superb Pauline's pens reference.
B) Apologise for sniping at Squadgy's "myself" usage. Sorry.
C) Enquire of Squibbler (you seemed far too keen to pick up on my (mis)use of punctuation), what the sentence "Trying getting out a bit more shermanator" actually means.

And with that, I will leave this thread to run the course it was intended for.
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Old 6th Oct 2004, 07:48
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Shermanator, no need to apologise but accepted.

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Old 6th Oct 2004, 09:59
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C) Enquire of Squibbler (you seemed far too keen to pick up on my (mis)use of punctuation), what the sentence "Trying getting out a bit more shermanator" actually means.
You need me to explain that?? I don't think I need to. It's a self evident snipe and I'm perfectly sure you know what I meant . Uncalled for? Perhaps; but so was your snipe at Squadgy. I find it most annoying when seemingly genuine, keen people ask someone for help on Pprune and have to suffer a sanctimonious reply; questioning their grammatical skills for instance. Nor does it help when said sanctimonious reply isn't exactly the last word in the "Queens English".

This isn't an official application website for crying out loud. It's a bl**dy forum!! The standard of spelling and grammar acroos thys forums is atrowshus at tyms I doubt you'd find such (lazy or poor keyboard skills?) errors on an "official" aplication. Come on, give people a break!!

niteflite01 provided an excellent post for those that sought answers.

Oh look! You've apologised to Squadgy. Good man.

And with that, I will leave this thread to run the course it was intended for.

Speaking of which:

EGGP have no plans (at the moment) to train incumbent ATSA's as ATCO's. Costs too much money. They prefer to recruit directly from the ATCO market.
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Old 6th Oct 2004, 10:29
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Sqibbler

EGGP have no plans (at the moment) to train incumbent ATSA's as ATCO's. Costs too much money. They prefer to recruit directly from the ATCO market.

And which particular ATCO market might that be?

At EGGP's last quoted salary levels not much of one methinks.
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Old 6th Oct 2004, 10:50
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And which particular ATCO market might that be?
Anyone who's interested.

At EGGP's last quoted salary levels not much of one methinks.
Well that's Peels problem, not mine. I'm perfectly happy for no-one to apply for a vacancy. Only encourages them to improve the salary levels.
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