ATCE engineering careers info
 

Hi all, I'd like some career advice please.
My background is in electronic engineering and I hold a BEng(Hons) in Electronic Engineering. I have around 8 years experience since graduating in engineering jobs in the private sector. These have been mainly production/test roles in small private sector companies.
While I have learnt a great deal in my time, the work I have done has never really felt like a long term career, and unfortunately I have been made redundant twice.
Over the past few years, I have been more focussed on other areas in my life, getting married, buying doing up a house and havent really been thinking of a long term career just earning cash.
I have been considering applying to the Engineering Technican scheme at NATS (National Air Traffic Control) to train up as an Air Traffic Control Engineer.
I meet all the criteria, and I dont mind a drop in salary to move forward in the future but I am concerned that now at 30 I may be too old?
Can anyone give me some advice in general about ATCE engineering career?
many thanks

It can be a very varied and interesting career. If you already have a degree and experience then you wouldn't need much training.

ATCE is a catch all term for any one in enginneering. Generally there are two groups - service delivery - who work shifts and perform hands on engineering support for the ATC service. There are also the day job engineers who develop, support and test ATC systems.

It is a job for the flexible. I am a software engineer and as well as software design, development and test I have been involved in project planning, safety case writing, requirements gathering and analysis and on one occasion when I suggested trying my hand at Project Management I ended up running a project to soundproof the roof of an Ops room.

Generally it is well paid, holidays are good and once you learn to ignore the ATCOs it is excellent. Lots of chances to try other things, and no need to go into management if you don't want to.

I have been in NATS 20 years now and the people make it a great place to work. Most days I come to work with a plan of what to do and sometimes it even gets started.

Check your PMs for more info.

One thing you can be certain of is that for the next few months NATS won't dare suggest that anybody is too old. :)

Despite what you may read on other threads NATS is still a pretty good place to work and I'd second every thing that cdtaylor says. Many of the Engineers in NATS started as Technicians so the scope for career progression and enhancement is there if you have the ambition.

The Eng Tec scheme is very good and accredited and as the other have said the T&Cs are very good compared to other engineering career options.

Two things to add one make sure that when you apply make sure that you only use "NATS" we were rebraned a few years ago and dropped the national bit and just to state the company will be reducing the number of 24 hour engineering watch staff so if that is what you are after the opportunties will be limited, otherwise its a very intreseting career.

As you have a degree and some experience you could try the NATS Direct Entrant Graduate (DEG) scheme. It has been running for some time (I joined 10 years ago via this route) and is IET accredited. I think as we have just finished interviewing that entry is closed for 2009, and as such it is probably not on the NATS website at the moment.

The EngTech scheme is aimed really at HNC/HND level for a more hands role, so it depends on what you want to get into, and if you can wait for the DEG scheme recruitment for 2010 to open up later this year.

Check out NATS DEG Scheme for more information.

RS

No doubt that the NATS scheme is excellent for anyone wanting to get into Airport Engineering, but if that doesn't work for you for whatever reason you could always try applying to a regional non NATS airport.

We have a training scheme for our own Tel's Engineers, training one about every three years or so - I know that doesn't sound much, but training is a long and very expensive process before we get the return of a fully qualfied engineer.
Clearly we, or most other airports, wouldn't pay as much as NATS, but you get all your training paid for and come out with the same qualifications as the NATS guys.
Once you've got a few years experience under your belt there's nothing to stop you moving on elsewhere (NATS Engineering included).

With NATS its not just Airports Engineering it includes Centres plus all the other end to end systems.

Thanks for the advice,
I have decided to go for the Engineering Technician scheme rather than the DEG as I have OND and HND (I got my BEng degree by staying at uni an extra year on a top-up - thought it was a good idea at the time!). The work I have had to date has been more down the lines of Test and production engineering than design and I have always liked hands on stuff better.
To apply I have to include my CV and a covering letter. With the covering letter I was just planning on talking about my background and saying that I want to apply to NATS for good long term career progression and top class training and development. Is that what they are looking for or do they want pages and pages of stuff etc.
cheers

What they will be looking for is evidence of real desire to do the job and why you want to work for NATS. If you get an interview make sure that you do your reasearch on NATS (use the NATS Internet site) and also you can recognise basic components and can explain what they do.

Good luck.

More importantly, it stood for National Air Traffic Services and not National Air Traffic Control like you've put in your original post! :eek:

Best of luck with whatever you go on to do; I can only hope you do well and be happy at it.

NATS is no longer an abbreviation the company name is just "NATS" no National no Air Traffic Services!

Sorry bad wording of post