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.

quote:
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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.

No more Radar Skills after the next course anyway... new course starts this summer. Anyone "crossing the floor" to Area after June will do the new course. There is no Op Famil in the middle of the new course. You do all the college bit, then go to your posted unit and stay there - forever!:cool:

DwB,

Having read all of this thread, there seems to be contradictory accounts of the current course content and structure. Your info seems to be the most up to date? Any chance that if you (or anyone) has 5 spare mins you could post the definitive course structure applicable from June for all 3 specialisations, please?

Thanks, ADIS :cool:

I cant see what all the fuss is about over pay anyway:\
If you went the other way and paid for your own course you get absolutly nothing!!:{
apart from an even bigger mortgage:{ :{ :{
still look on the bright side think what you'll be erning after 5-6 yrs providing you get through the course adn Validate>>>>>:O :ok:

Okay.

new courses start at the college every 13 weeks. Each intake is a maximum of 34 trainees [at the moment, due to a limitation on the classroom size for the Basic course]. They carry out a course in Basic ATC which covers all the legal, Met, Navigation and Nav-aids, and general theory of ATC common to all disciplines. they also do some very basic ATC training on a Part-Task Simulator which covers very basic vectoring. The operative word is BASIC.
This lasts for 11 weeks and at the end they are streamed for their final discipline. Those going to Airports get a couple of weeks leave and a couple of weeks flying training, then onto the 13 week aerodrome course. those who are to go Area just get the leave and then start the Foundation AREA course. This lasts for 14 weeks, then another bit of leave [1-2 weeks] before the Advanced 12 week area course. They then head off to whichever unit they are to be posted to, with a brief airline ops famil at BA on the way. There will also be a simulator based airline famil unit which will go into the details of flight-deck operations.
The Airports gang either leave straight after the Aerodrome course if they are going to a London airport, or stay on for a further 12 week Approach radar course if they are going out into the sticks. The only other way through the college is for those destined for LTCC. Terminal Control can be performed with only an approach rating, so a small number will go straight from the Basic course to the Approach course, then out into TC for validation training.
Time at Bournemouth will now be between 6 months and 9 months maximum, with no significant gaps in the middle. The learning curve is steep, so be prepared to work in the evenings and at weekends.

But don't quote me.... This has changed a cople of times recently.
DwB:cool:

Or you could be in a country where paying for your course is the only option.............

DWB
 

Thanks for that DWB. Now that's some useful posting.

DwB,

Top post, thanks very much.

Regards, ADIS :cool:

DWB,

No flying training for the area people?

Not as such. it was decided [to universal agreement] that 10 hours of terror in a trauma-hawk didn't really help with the understanding of airways control and IFR traffic. With the demise of the universal aerodrome rating, Area trainees will now get flight simulator time to show them the mysteries of airways route flying and flight-deck ops, which is deemed [and I agree] far more pertinent to the job at hand. This of course means that all the studes don't get a fortnight in a caravan in Wales playing cards and drinking ale which was most agreeable but cost the company £120,000 per year.

DwB:cool:

A question for DwB if I may-

You mention streaming at the end of basic training for selection of final discipline- could you elaborate on how this is done? is it based on examination results? top people get first choice or top people get most difficult postings? what are the different levels?

many thanks in advance.

wnd

NATS being the kind considerate employer that it is, would you believe that the first criteria is individual preference. If 5 want to go Airports, and the course is slated to provide 5 for Airports, then they are generally the ones who get it.

Life is never that simple but the course managers do make a genuine effort to send people where they want to go. It depends of course on where NATS actually need people. Some courses have more variety of potential destinations than others, but most will be sending at least 1 to LHR and one to another London airport. Probably another two or three to regional airports [they get both aerodrome and approach rating] and about 3 a year to LTCC [just the approach rating]. Everyone else, grab an Area rating and go to Swanwick/Prestwick/Camberwick.

There is some selection for the different post-aerodrome course destinations based on ability, but the initial streaming occurs after only 3 months, so there isn't much of a chance to select on ability. everyone learns at different speeds, so the whizz-kids at the start may be down to the bottom of the class by graduation time.

Best to arrive at CATC and hope to validate somewhere. Wherever it is, you will have a blast [even ABZ]:ok:

[sorry ABZ - ].:O

DwB:cool:

so what's everyones views on the different disciplines?

I've heard tell that most controllers will swear that their own discipline is the best, but are there any distinct advantages / disadvantages to each one?

marmotte