ATC training in the 60s and 70s. 'Non-state' airports.
 

I found out several years ago that Leeds Bradford Airport was the first British ATC unit to commission its own cadetship and training programme for student ATCOs. The programme began in 1964 and was complete by 1981, although there have since been several LBA sponsored students who have studied at various ATC colleges. The LBA students did all their training in-house with the exception (I think) of radar and Met observer and most of them stayed with LBA for many years after qualifying.

Did any other similar-sized airfields, e.g. East Midlands, operate a training programme of their own ?

Thankyou.

Approved ATCO training courses were not required in those days; you could simply train 'on the job' then go and take the exams.
I know Southampton operated this system.

,,,,and it worked great producing motivated ATCOs, ex ATCAs (in those days), who had peripheral aviation knowledge and could tell the difference between a Dove and a Heron, or an Apache or Aztec. Something (IMHO) better than some who graduated from "College of Knowledge" (who readily admitted that they trained students to pass exams) and never did validate at a Unit.

A bit of a straw man justification IMHO.They jolly well should validate, given that they had already been on the unit for however many years prior to Atco training. The other side of the same coin was that there was no guarantee of the extent of their appreciation, and in many cases a very parochial outlook.
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...and possibly a little exploitative? I know of several cases where the ATSA/ATCA, even if they had been to a college for the rating course, would be expected to complete a full ATSA morning shift, and only then be given OJT for ATCO validation on the afternoon shift in their own time.

Luton Scheme Training Scheme
 

Luton operated a scheme from the late sixties well into the eighties and trained at least 20 controllers through OJT and attendance at either Hurn or Bailbrook for courses and examination. There was no bonding as such but selection was by merit from the assistants and most remained for many years after qualifying, although there was a surge of leavers in the late eighties. The ability for a student license holder to demonstrate ability on live traffic before a rating course was an aid to an almost 100% success rate from Luton trainees. Possibly there was some parochialism for a while but it wasn't detrimental to overall service provision and didn't last forever as our 'exports' have shown around the world.

So, it wasn't perfect. Apart from Southampton and LBA, where else produced home-grown controllers? The word was that LBA's programme was such high quality that the CAA used to pay LBA to do OJT for their cadets. I can think of at least one Luton ATCO who had the LBA treatment (before leaving the CAA for Luton).

Thanks for that, wickman. It looks like we cross-posted. The ATCO I'm thinking of isn't likely to have been a Luton product, but went there post CAA.

Several now-retired LBA ATCOs spent their entire careers there. Says a lot really.

A very interesting post and surprised that Southend EGMC has not yet been mentioned . In the late 50’s early 60’s a number of atca’s made the transition to ATCOs encouraged by the management also a loan of £146 to obtain their PPL at the Southend Municipal Flying School.A very busy period at EGMC with the cross channel traffic and charter operations I believe EGMC was the third busiest airport in the UK at that time . The operation was quite challenging including the operation of the Echo ARAA. Happy days !!!

ATC training
 

Not dissimilar to the on unit training that the CAA asked of their cadets, though? Some may have had a couple of years, but for others it was a matter of months, as it depended on course availability & operational need. I believe in the 60s & 70s cadets were required to validate before progressing to the next rating stage, which seems similar. I seem to recall some of those (I detest the term "non state") airports even hosted cadets for for that training. Bearing in mind those who were ATSAs were working at that, as well as training as ATCOs, & were often tasked with other roles across the airport business, I'm not sure what appreciation was missed out on. I'd suggest some probably had a better understanding of the aviation world, than those who's entire experience was based on college & then posting to a single unit. The licence examinations were the same, & parochialism occurs within all ATC units, even now, so I'm not convinced that stacks up.

Just to address this part: in my experience, the role I applied for was as a Trainee ATCO/ATSA, therefore was interviewed & assessed on that basis. The qualifications & medical requirement were the same as for a CAA cadet, & anyone could apply from anywhere, if they met that requirement. The difference, if there was one, was that the airport reserved the right not to send you on the course until there was a business need to - so you could end up waiting for a number of years, marking time as an ATSA.

Blackpool also went the self study route. Met a Blackpool ATCO who was taking the Technical Exam and TWR/APP ratings at the same time as me.

NATCS' (now NATS) own ATCO Cadets were required to undertake all rating courses at the college of ATC at Hurn and only if successful passing all three rating exams (written, practical, oral) would then progress to an operational unit for training in the field.
Fail 1 rating exam and you had to re-take with no further training.
Fail more than 1 (including a re-sit) you were terminated.(Unlike nowadays, re-coursing was not even contemplated)
Fail more than 1 over the whole 3 years you were terminated.
Units used for training on my course (at least for ADC - nowadays ADV/ADI - training) were all NATS units plus Ronaldsway, Oxford and Jersey; I don't recall anyone off my course being sent to Leeds but I could be wrong as it's nearly 50 years ago.
We started numbering 23 and graduated 16.
One resigned on the last day of the 4 week 'Initial' course.
Four (possibly 5) got terminated when they failed to reach validation standard or failed their validation board.
One simply couldn't take the stress in the second year - used to consume a whole packet of glucose tablets every lecture - and asked to revert back to ATCA (now ATSA) grade.
Much to my surprise, when I was first sent to Farnborough in my 3rd year, one of my 'chopped' colleagues was a tower controller at Fairoaks this beong long before the FISO License was invented.
As for ATCO Cadets being required to undertake airport authority roles, this was due to a 'glut' of trainees in the system in the late '70s or early '80s; there were no training slots in ATC so the aerodrome authority 'used' them instead.

Yes, quite archaic in those days: the licence requirements were the same whoever you worked for, though; when I trained, one attempt, one resit, not allowed to retake within a set time period, the length of which varied depending on the rules at the time. Of course, no point in undertaking a rating course which you'd never be needed to use, even the CAA eventually realised what a waste that was, so rarely did anyone from outside the CAA take an Area rating - although the option was there if you wanted to spend the money. Playing devils advocate, the evidence that some could undertake the rating exams without doing any of the courses, albeit usually with some military experience behind them, makes me wonder whether there was that much value in the old courses? When I went through, they were certainly in need of some radical overhaul, which they duly got, of course.
I wasn't referring to the cadet glut: the role of an ATSA outside the CAA often encompassed working in the briefing room, dealing with the airline ops departments, operations work on the airport, dealing with noise monitoring, & even working in the terminal at times. It was part of the job, rather than fixing a short term problem, & very interesting it was, too.
Quite a few former cadets went on to very successful careers beyond the CAA; similarly, some who were successful through the whole cadetship, didn't amount to anything, or went on to successful careers in other parts of the industry, or even other industries. The cadetship was "a" method of becoming an ATCO, but it wasn't "the" method, & for some, not the best method, either.

Can anyone confirm my vague recollection that many years ago the CAA had an ATC Regional Training and/or Examining Centre at Birmingham Airport? And maybe something similar on the Area side at the old Prestwick Centre?

I first came across the term 'non-state' in an ATC book by David Graves. He was using it in the context of Leeds Bradford's controllers! Apologies if it gets up people's noses.

Believe it was a FTU (Field Training Unit). Did my APP rating exams there in late 60's and then Gatwick FTU for APS (as it now is) sim and rating exams in early 70s. Hurn also had an FTU, where I did some APP sim work prior to the rating exams.

Field Traiining Unit, yes - thanks TCAS.

....and there was the Aberdeen FTU under the watchful eye of Harry McGrath. Quite an academy if not wholly ATC related!

:) no apology needed for me, it's just one of those "nails down a blackboard" things. Aviation is full of them ;).

There was one at Stansted too.

I’m not sure whether it had an FTU but I did my Approach Radar practical exam at Heathrow in the 70’s whilst going down the Luton/self study route. (Dicky Stokes was one of the examiners).Personally I was very grateful for the way my career panned out through following an ATSA to ATCO path. The grounding in all aspects of aviation served all of us extremely well. There were people at Luton during my time there who would not have been given the opportunity to fulfil their ambitions due to lack of educational qualifications but, because of the self study route and encouragement from Luton enjoyed excellent careers. I enjoyed working with you!

I had a T shirt with ‘ I’m non state’ printed to wear at CATC on my aerodrome course in 1982 - as one of Lutons trainees tacked on the end of the NATS course, got me a meeting in the heads office.......
I fully agree with Spiney, we worked with people who would not have got a look in qualifications wise in certain organisations, but they could do the job and I was proud to work alongside.

You can add Luton to that list, I was on 28 course and did my Aerodrome validation at Luton in 1973/4

The term non-State was frequently used in a disparaging manner by some others, though one has to ask how else would you refer to those units collectively. It is a pity that they did not - and do not - club together to demand a positive term - any offers? It may not originally have been intended that way but was often used thus and was/is demeaning to refer to anything as a "non-...". Having been on both sides of the fence, I was amused and appalled to be told in all seriousness by some clot that my licence was not to the same standard as his as it was "non-State" - this at the time of my ANSP about to take over the contract at "his" airport! I would not have believed it had I not heard it first hand - quite apart from the fact that I had gained it in State employment, had more experience than the speaker and two more ratings!

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In all seriousness, what would be the point? There is no ‘State’ provider for airport services any more, so why define ‘non-State’? NATS NSL has long been just one of a number of commercial ANSPs touting for business in the UK and abroad.

Any other airport ATC training establishments ? We've had Leeds Bradford, Luton, Southampton and Blackpool so far.

Should have mentioned the now disused Hamble which operated with TWR and APP and gave me the MER plus access to the College of Air Training ground school to enable me to get through the Technical Exam, TWR and APP ratings. Followed by at least two more ATCAs who followed the same route.

Having also been on both sides I have also come across this mythical divide. The phrase these days is non-NATS units, must admit I prefer the term "independent unit". I have also been sneered at by these superior beings because my identical licence was obtained elsewhere. Not sure what its like now but I know that NATS students some years ago were told they were the best from the very beginning. This was people that were just in the door and hadn't controlled an aircraft but were being told they were the cream of the crop because of the recruitment process. In fairness the genuinely good NATS trainees made good controllers, the poorer ones went straight to management roles. Although thats probably the same today!

The whole ‘them and us’ thing was much less prevalent in recent years, I always found asking to be shown how their licence differed from mine worked..... However did sometimes get the feeling that the centres had a ‘but they are not NATS units’ attitude - on the odd occasion we got a liaison visit from NATS staff they tended to be amazed at what the provincial non NATS unit had to offer.

SECOATS @ Manston but not actually part of the airport operation.