A lot of recent talk seems to be suggesting that NATS are taking on more trainees. Is it likely their hiring figures (i.e. just 15 out of 3.5k applicants are successful) are now wrong and its actually much higher? I'm a little confused on the direction they seem to be taking - are they simply hiring more people, and possibly lowering the bar to get more people through, or are they taking on more trainees and the dropout rate at the college is higher?

I've got stage 3 in a few weeks and I'm not sure if I should ask questions like this there

ATCOnoob1 I really would not worry about the NATS infographic. Just concentrate on trying to get offered a place as a TATC. If you are successful and you are given a course then you will have a score of things to get confused and worry about :E

NATS want more controllers over the next few years not just more trainees.

They've upped their recruitment drive massively in the past 18/24 months, purely to meet increased demand through retirement etc. I don't necessarily think the figures have changed nor do I think they've made the tests any easier (they're industry standard).

I think it's simply a case of more publicity = more applicants = more successful candidates at the current % success rate.

Congrats!!

Any ideas if the Jerez arrangement is a permanent thing for NATS? Is it a case of the odd course being delivered in Spain due to capacity in Southampton or more of a strategic decision to conduct training there?

I'm not sure if there are any plans to make it a permanent arrangement. I guess they'll make a calculated decision after we've tested it out :)

I would imagine that there will be a lot more courses taking place away from Southampton for capacity reasons in the near future.

Hi

I’ve been offered a place on this course. I’ll be joining you very soon. Exciting times :-)

I've got a place too! Looking forward to meeting you guys. Found this thread while scouring the internet for any more info on FTE I can find.

Great stuff! :D

I've set up a facebook group if you wanna join Ahmad, same for you Turpin. Search 'NATS 251 Jerez' and it should pop up.

Would be good to chat with any other trainees before we all head out. :)

Early stages questions
 

Hi folks,

I've been lucky (and a bit surprised) to have passed 0 & 1 and now looking at booking my assessment day. I'd applied on a bit of a whim not really knowing what it was all about but the more I look it's seeming very exciting. I just am anxious over a few points I'm hoping someone may be able to help with:

I have a young family and am hoping to have another baby in the next few years, if this was to happen mid training has anyone seen allowances made for this?

We are in the south west, with brs and ext being my nearest airports. Is there much job opportunities here or am I likely to always commute?

The study training period, is this distance based or at a centre and if so where?

Anyone doing this with a young family? If so any advice welcome.

Thanks a lot!

Expect to get posted to Aberdeen :E:ok:

Exeter isn't a NATS airport, so you won't going there if you're applying through NATS. You can make a request for where you want to go, but the reality is that you'll be sent where the company needs you. If you end up as an Area controller, which is where most people go as there's more area controllers then you'll be in Swanwick or Prestwick. It could equally be Cardiff or Edinburgh though if you end up going down the Tower controller route

The initial training is supposed to be undertaken in Whiteley, Hampshire but they're now sending people to Spain for the initial training as well as there's not enough training capacity at Whiteley. Regarding commuting, it wouldn't be possible from Bristol, there's so much work in the first few months that you would really struggle.

I don't know what you do at the moment, but the starting salary isn't great and it can be three years or so before you start earning decent money which is something else to consider if you've got a family.

Sadly won’t be Edinburgh either if you’re with NATS. Although Edinburgh are looking for trainees. Home

I'm in a similar position. Just passed Stage 3 and am looking at starting training in March, most likely in Gloucester, I'm told (residential training much like the earlier Jerez course). I've three young kids and a £1,400/month mortgage, so the 21 weeks of training on around £1k/month net are going to be very tough financially.

To manage the above, I'm going to have to do some existing consulting work on the side in parallel with the training, perhaps 8-10hrs a week. The very idea of this will be completely unfeasible to most. But I have to ensure (a) that I can feed my family during the transition, and (b) that I have a job to go back to if the training doesn't work out.

Once you're posted to a unit, you're on the regular shift pattern. This should mean regardless of where you're posted, you should be able to get home to Bristol for 3-4 days. I used to work in former CIS countries on rotation and wouldn't see my wife/kids for 6-8 weeks at a time, so six days is easy. In fact, I'd argue a more healthy balance than working from home as I do now.

Last time we moved it was £47k in costs (mostly stamp duty). I can't see myself uprooting the family. The UK is not big and it's not a daily commute (the worst type of commute).

Recipe for disaster? Who knows. I'm sure anything's possible if you are able to commit and think long term.

Hopefully I've reassured you that it's not all 25 year old footloose graduates with no costs!

Interesting! As someone currently completing the APS course at NATS (following having done Basic and ADI) I would urge massive caution at the idea that you will have 8-10hours per week free for consultancy. I totally empathise with your situation thought.

To give you an idea, during the 9 week basic course we had a written exam every 4/5 working days... the first being Air Law at the end of week 1 (10 written exams, 5 practical exams and an oral board). Everybody on my course spent at least 2/3 hours a night working, having done 0830-1630 at the college, in addition to at least a day working at the weekend. The workload is, quite simply, relentless... but then that is what the public should expect in such a role.

It is a great feeling though when you pass the courses!
Good luck!

@ Flying184

Thanks a lot for the above re training - extremely helpful. Difficult situations tend to be exaggerated (particularly by the prospective employer) so it's nice to hear real world accounts such as yours.

For the initial nine months of training I guess I will have to devote alternate Sundays to either (a) seeing the kids, or (b) working to feed the kids and keep the other job!

Any others going through training at the moment? Be interested to hear what your typical weekends are like.

Good point :)

Hi

Unfortunately I’m unable to find the group. Any suggestions?

Hi

I am currently going through basic training at NATS so if I may chip in a little bit.

As Flying184 has already said, the workload during training is pretty tough and I would also urge caution with your current plan to do consultancy work on the side. My basic course seems to be run differently from what Flying184 has described, but you would find it very difficult to have free time to do much else.

To give you an idea, after the 0800-1600 day at college I usually do an additional 3 hours study in the evening, and probably 4/5 hours at the weekend with one day off. You don't have continuous exams every week as mentioned before, but you do have a massive amount of theory to learn initially, with your first written exam (covering 4 of the topics) about 5 weeks into the course. You then have your other written exam about 2 weeks after this, with practical exams the week after that, so pretty relentless. There is no time to take your foot off the throttle and you really need to hit the ground running when it comes to learning the theory, let alone working on your practical technique.

You need to decided how much work you can realistically put into training, but I would suggest what you have described as your plan currently, if you want a good chance of passing the courses, may be very difficult to maintain without feeling burned out. Everyone is different though, but I can only advise from my experience.

Any other questions feel free to ask.

Try searching 'NATS 251', should come up. Failing that I'll PM you so you can add me then I can put you in :)

Just to explain the discrepancies - I was sent to complete my NATS training at Global/Gloucestershire with 11 other students :)

Found it and request sent 😊

Stage 2 Interview
 

So I have my stage 2 assessment day on Friday so I've read with interest all the threads especially about the initial training. Seems like life gets popped on hold for a few months! Tricky with a family but hopefully I'll be lucky enough to get though and if I do it sounds like I wont be the only one. I live very near Swanwick so I'm really hoping to be able to do my training there but hey who knows!

Can anyone shed any light on how long the first multiple choice on the document I received will take and also how long the FEAST & DART tests are? I'm presuming a couple of hours for each but that does seem a long time.

Do I need paper pens, calculator? I know I did in the 1st stage.

What type of questions are in the FEAST test, any online examples would be great but I can't locate any.

Any help and advice would be eagerly received.

Can't believe how nervous I am about it, it's just something I've wanted for a long time

Thanks in Advance

Hello all!

Just found out about this thread! I am taking my Stage 3 next week and would be great if somebody could give me some tips or what to expect.
I have seen somebody earlier on posted a step-by-step of their day in Stage 2, but havent seen one for Stage 3, which would really help me!
One key question I have is regarding the document they give you to revise over in Stage 2, they ask you to do so again - Which part of the day would this be used for? Is there another multiple choice type questionnaire about it? Id rather practise for interview questions as thats my weak link, but would like to know if anybody can confirm it is important to thoroughly revise back through that document?

First of all, good luck on Friday! A general tip i received was to not over think things, stay calm, and dont be too afraid of not passing (as you know, its not for everyone).

The multi-choice i think was 20-25questions. If you read the document you should be fine. I remember terrified il be quizzed on the plane statistics, but it wasnt too heavy in that department for myself luckily.
The FEAST and DART are about 2 hours long each. You may finish them early if you are quick, but they are timed questions so most will finish around the same time. You wont need any paper pens etc, they provide everything and tell you not to put anything else on the desk. A calculator was not needed at all.

The FEAST test is mainly spatial reasoning tests. I cant post links here, but go on google and accept the first response to 'spatial reasoning test' by 123test, it is an extremely good example of what you will encounter. My advice will be to also play the games on the NATS website. Whereas they may not be exactly what was used in FEAST of Dart, there reaction timings and how the difficulty level goes up are good examples of what you will encounter.
The DART test, I honestly dont see anything that can prepare you for it. Not in a scary way. I found it the easiest part of the day personally.

Final bit of advice will be, if you make it through the day then look out for the email in your JUNK email inviting you Stage 3. I received it 8 days after my Stage 2 and I had no idea it was in my junk mail (due to all other NATS communications coming to my main inbox).

Keep calm, dont over complicate things. Realize especially when you are doing the FEAST you WILL make mistakes, but dont let it get to you as there are so many questions a few mistakes are okay. Drink lots of water. Go to the bathroom whenever they give you the chance. And in my opinion dont 'guess randomly' to get an answer down, skip it and move on and come back to it at the end.

Eek
 

So I've got through my stage 0 and 1 tests (much to my surprise) and have booked my assessment day for the 5th February! Any tips and tricks for the booklet or any one any experience to give me some pointers, I'm feeling confident, but can always do better and learn from those with experience!

Thanks so much ​​​​​​​that is a real help much appreciated. Funnily enough I've tried the same spatial reasoning tests so thats good to hear.

In the Multiple choice on the document were there lots of questions on the acronyms? Feels like theres hundreds of them.

I dont want to say too much about what was on the tests to make it fair. But i can confirm there were some acronym questions. Id be careful as its likely they use different questions per different groups. In general i would expect some tricky acronym questions though! As an idea of how many passed the sections (so maybe you can consider which test is hardest) - everybody in my group passed the multi choice paper questions regarding the booklet, however only 2/8 managed to get passed FEAST and on to DART. You dont know how many people passed DART as the results came in personal emails approx 8 days after the assessment day.

Thanks again. You've really helped settle my nerves. 2 out of 8 though wow. Well I'll give it my best shot. Good luck with Stage 3

When I did the FEAST at NATS 2,5 years ago I think about 10/12 passed it. But in the end it all comes down to if you have the capabilities or not, and if you're well rested when you start the test. I can imagine the passing rate will be very different each testing day!

Hey Fred congratulations on getting to Stage. When next week do you have it? I’ll be there on the 29th for mine too. Have you had any luck answering your questions as I too would like to know if I need to thoroughly revise the document.

I will also be there on the 29th!
No answer yet. Hopefully somebody can give us some insight into what to expect to cool our nerves!
Hows your preparation going, and what are you doing for it out of interest?

A few people have had questions regarding the booklet for stage 2 and stage 3.

My advice is that you need to make sure you're decently familiar with it for both. The multiple choice paper at stage 2 is mainly there to weed out anyone who has put no effort into preparing for the day. If you have a good grasp of the concepts and could muddle your way roughly through the figures you will be fine.

For stage 3 there is no specific written test on the booklet but familiarity with it will really help during the interview. Once you've learnt it for stage 2 just make sure you're revisiting it periodically until your stage 3 to ensure you haven't forgotten big chunks.

Hope that helps :ok:

Thanks for the information 👍

Ahh ok awesome. Nervous yet? I have to admit the preparation could be going better. I have been busy with work so haven’t dedicated as much time as I could be. My plan is just to familiarise myself with the booklet they provided for stage 2 and make sure I’m happy I can answer your standard interview questions comfortably. Not sure there’s much else we can do really.

How did you get on mate?
Unfortunately I wasnt successful. Quite disappointing they dont tell you which area, although my gut says the first 30 minutes of the interview as the questions were definitely not what I was expecting or what I have experienced before.

Just wondering if anybody here has any ideas of anywhere else you can apply to within the Industry. I am very set on going into the aviation industry, even if it means paying for training (however ideally this would be like NATS and free). Does anybody know of any other possible locations/job titles where I should apply, or know any courses that are likely to boost my chances of progressing in the future in this field?

Hi Fred,

HIAL and Air Navigation Solutions have run ab-intro courses before. Worth keeping an eye out. Further afield Eurocontrol or IAA could be an option?

IIRC, Global ATS do/did a scheme where you work as a sim pilot for 3 years, then get an ADI rating paid for you.

Hey Mate. Sorry to hear you weren’t successful. I had a phone call on Wednesday and was lucky enough to be offered a place with them.

It must be annoying not knowing exactly where things went wrong for you. Are you considering re-applying in 12 Months time? Barry Scott has given some good pointers. You could also think about joining the military as a Controller if that seems appealing to you?

Well done on passing. Did they give you any indication as to when courses were due to start?

Hello,

Does anyone know what tests stage 0 consists of?

Many thanks

Thanks very much 👍 No nothing yet. I’m in a position where I’m required to give 12 Months notice to my current employer anyway. They’re aware of this so I probably won’t hear anything about the upcoming courses.