NATS college woes?
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NATS college woes?
Heard a rumour today that the course just started at the college had many "no shows" and is quite short on numbers. Anyone know the real truth behind this?
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A more important question is how many of them will make it out at the other end and will they be any use? It is not their fault but the new condensed college courses seem to be producing a part baked product. Some of our recent ab initios have been a long way behind the drag curve. This is just putting more strain on already stretched resources at unit level........
On that note, good luck boys and girls !!!!!!!!!
On that note, good luck boys and girls !!!!!!!!!
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Sorry Vlad, but the quantity of baking being applied at Hurn is precisely what was agreed with the units themselves. If CATC is only being tasked with training to a minimum standard then it is for all you good people to apply the rest. We don't give aerodrome ratings to area controllers anymore as it was considered a waste of time. This of course now means that the poor wee buggers are 6 months younger [in ATC experience] by the time they get to you. They've also lost any OJT that they used to have during the CATC course, so they are arriving at [insert unit here] pretty wide-eyed and shell-shocked. You may therefore have to provide some additional "I can't believe they don't know this.." training compared to previous CATC training regimes [post-RGAT; the pre-RGAT stuff really was Basic]. You will find that a lot of the stuff that is reported as "They never told us that.." can be re-classified as "They told us that but I have forgotten it..".
Short answer is that if you want it trained at the College, your Unit has to ask for it, and pay for it. At the moment the balance has swung to the Units pretty hard. It is for y'all to team up and push back...
As for the no-shows, you really should try not to believe rumours. 'specially 'round 'ere!
Short answer is that if you want it trained at the College, your Unit has to ask for it, and pay for it. At the moment the balance has swung to the Units pretty hard. It is for y'all to team up and push back...
As for the no-shows, you really should try not to believe rumours. 'specially 'round 'ere!
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Originally Posted by Dances with Boffins
the quantity of baking being applied at Hurn is precisely what was agreed with the units themselves.
Agree with Vlad and GT3; the quality of material reaching units is putting far too much strain on OJTIs; too much is expected of units in training ab initios, especially those smaller units which don't have sufficient staff for a dedicated training section.
When it boils down to it, it's all to do with money.
The cadetship (as it used to be, and not forgetting the class to class system) turned out ATCOs. It was unheard of for someone to fail at their final unit.
But Mr Moneypinchingidiotmanwhocouldn'tgiveastuffaboutsafety decided that the cadetships had to be drastically cut, and the class to class sytem abolished.
And I believe that now all the actual flying content (PPL training and airline liaisons) is also to be cut !!
Ahh but that's progress for ya !!
The cadetship (as it used to be, and not forgetting the class to class system) turned out ATCOs. It was unheard of for someone to fail at their final unit.
But Mr Moneypinchingidiotmanwhocouldn'tgiveastuffaboutsafety decided that the cadetships had to be drastically cut, and the class to class sytem abolished.
And I believe that now all the actual flying content (PPL training and airline liaisons) is also to be cut !!
Ahh but that's progress for ya !!
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the quantity of baking being applied at Hurn is precisely what was agreed with the units themselves
BEX
Originally Posted by Dances with Boffins
Sorry Vlad, but the quantity of baking being applied at Hurn is precisely what was agreed with the units themselves. If CATC is only being tasked with training to a minimum standard then it is for all you good people to apply the rest. We don't give aerodrome ratings to area controllers anymore as it was considered a waste of time. =
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What I meant by 'corporate' was that the units weren't involved in the decision. In fact, AFAIK many of them weren't even told about the changes to the course.
Last edited by Gonzo; 15th Jul 2006 at 08:33.
Indeed - I understand. As, I think, has been said before, there ought to be a record of the individuals involved in that decision. They might have a great deal to answer for at some time and have certainly been responsible for dragging down the overall standard of ATC in the UK.
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Sorry 2 sheds, I misunderstood what you were getting at. I agree. In fact, I'd like to meet the people behind a few of the decisions taken over the last few years......
Looks like u got out just in time Bren! 
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Just don't blame the poor bloody footsloggers at Hurn! 
The way the company works now is that if "The Customers" [that's you lot] don't ask for it or agree to pay for it, then Hurn won't offer to do it as it will be assumed that training to CAP624 standard will be carried out at the unit. If the customer wants full training in [insert skill or competency here] to CAP624 standard to be carried out at Hurn, then we'll do it. What we can't do any more is train the beggars in everything we can think of so that all you have to do is the unit-specifics and the "final polish" for validation. So until the feelings that you are expressing here perculate up to the NSL bods who made "the decision", I'm afraid you are going to have to do all the additional training to hit validation levels.
And if you think it has bottomed-out, think again. The knife is still being weilded.
Berni - 3 years? Don't be daft man. That'd give us a 95% pass-mark or sumfink! What'd we do with all them controllers.
The way the company works now is that if "The Customers" [that's you lot] don't ask for it or agree to pay for it, then Hurn won't offer to do it as it will be assumed that training to CAP624 standard will be carried out at the unit. If the customer wants full training in [insert skill or competency here] to CAP624 standard to be carried out at Hurn, then we'll do it. What we can't do any more is train the beggars in everything we can think of so that all you have to do is the unit-specifics and the "final polish" for validation. So until the feelings that you are expressing here perculate up to the NSL bods who made "the decision", I'm afraid you are going to have to do all the additional training to hit validation levels.
And if you think it has bottomed-out, think again. The knife is still being weilded.
Berni - 3 years? Don't be daft man. That'd give us a 95% pass-mark or sumfink! What'd we do with all them controllers.
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DwB, nobody with half a brain blames...
...believe me. In fact, I was having dinner with a few senior college people the other week, and I was surprised to find out just how low they thought our opinion of them was!
the poor bloody footsloggers at Hurn!