Pay at ATC College
 

I am starting at the College in Jun this year and was just wondering how much I could expect to be paid for the duration of the course! Unfortunately I have a mortgage etc. and there does'nt seem to be much info about. What is the salary after qualifying?

I would really appeciate honest answers as I am trying to figure out what I can and cant afford.

Ta v much

I think you NATS lot should not get any pay whilst at the college!!!!;) ;) ;) :ok:

Solo73,

Excuse my ignorance, but surely if it's that important you should have been well aware of the pay you'd receive before you signed the offer of employment.

FYI it's £14,947.20 plus £100 a week (untaxed allowance).

£19,499.14 with no allowance a few months out of the college (depends which course you do).

When you validate at a unit it rises to between £23,962.11 and £27,522.53, dependent upon your unit, plus £4,865 a year shift work allowance, plus a London weighting of either £3,667 (inner London) or £1,679 (outer London a year.

To add to Gonzo's comments, the £100 a week accomodation allowance is only paid for the weeks you actually are attending work, ie not on the 2 week breaks you get between courses.

I think the college courses now last either 9 or 12 months, depending on which dicipline you follow, and once you get to unit can take up to 2 years to validate, it depends on where you go and how lucky you get with courses.

Aerodrome only takes six months.

Is that all??

Hope solo73, your mortage isn't too big!

I'm starting in June too. I asked HR a couple of months ago about the pay, and they said what Gonzo said for whilst you are at the college, but they said you earnt about 23K - 27K while validating, depending on what unit you're at. Perhaps this is from 19K or so with unsociable hours payment?

Anyway, for those with kids, you would possibly be entitled to Working Families Tax Credit to help out a bit.

Yes, thinking about it while on the Training and Development scale (£19,499) you do get the UHP (£3,667) and London weighting.

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FYI it's £14,947.20 plus £100 a week (untaxed allowance).
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Is that all??

Hope solo73, your mortage isn't too big!



Hehehe, you souldn't complain that much, in Spain we get 450 €/month while doing the course in Madrid, which is not the cheapest place to live in Spain.

When you consider that the £100 per week payment is tax free, at college you get the net equivalent of a £22k a year gross salary which isn't that bad.

It just shows what a good deal the trainees were on before the pay drop...

Out of interest how long is the area course now, without the foundation course and any other non licence specific courses?

ie for present aerodrome / approach atcos who wish to transfer.

Ta

The "new" Area course which will apply to all trainees commencing from now on lasts just over 6 months, commencing at the end of the Introductory [soon to be re-named "Basic"] course. That's the bit at the college.
Validation at the units takes considerably longer.

Is there a period of OJT in the middle, like there is at the moment?

Cuddles, mid course OJT was stopped a couple of years ago due to new european license laws (I think!). You cannot undertake live training until you have completed the associated rating course which wasn't the case when I did area OJT between area 1 and 2.

You don't get the OJT but if you go down the area route you get 8 weeks Operational Familiarisation at Swanwick, Prestwick, TC or Manchester.

We are doing that at the minute and whilst we are not allowed to undertake any R/T as we are not valid to do it, the experience looks like it will be very useful (we're only a week in but looks good!!)

It is also giving us the chance to see the place we will end up working at in future. Should make the transition easier post college anyway.

Best of to all:O

Unless it is Manchester, which has only a few years left before it is moved up to Prestwick on current plans.

Anyone know if a valid atco who is transferring across to area would do the operational famil?

Cheers,

True, should've mentioned that really

Cuddles,

If you are a NATS aerodrome/approach controller the usual practice is to join at the start of ACS 1. On the last course to finish we had two people go down that route and are now at Scottish.

If you have been at a non-radar posting I guess you might start on Radar Skills (while they still have it until it becomes part of the area course) after which famil takes place.

Famil is actually before Radar Skills now. We are on famil at the minute and start on Radar Skills end of May.