Same mine was in March they told me possibly September

Nats have a voluntary redundancy process open at the moment. Although that's not affecting operational jobs at this stage, I'd be surprised if ab initio recruitment is going ahead at the same time.

And with that there is a pause on external vacancies. The training college and its trainees are also under review.

yes but what are they reviewing? It’ll be the number of trainees they will need from the college over the next few years

I took it as meaning current college trainees (and those due to start - e.g. me) are at risk. I hope I'm wrong on that one, but I can't say I'm confident...

Trainess that have just finished at Global ATS have been posted and joining units. I know that one of those is joining a unit in November.

Have they had good postings?

I only know that 1 has been posted to Farnborough. Aside from that I dont know.

What do you define as "a good posting"?

Only 4 have been given postings, the other 9 of us are in airport holding for potentially up to a year :(

As in, the unit the said trainees wanted to be posted at

Where did the 4 get posted?

My course, no one got the posting they wanted. People from the south coast ended up in Scotland, people from the midlands ended up in Scotland and the south coast.

Speculation that training will not return to the NATS college for a while, and the hundreds of TATCs will not be needed for 5+ years. Having said that there is an ageing workforce so I am sure things will open up again in 3 or 4 years.

As someone waiting to start a training course, this would hardly be unexpected but is still disheartening. Is this speculation based on anything that has come from NATS themselves or more based on expectations of the industry? I doubt my cohort will get any kind of official update until the furlough scheme ends, but would be good to know what the current conversations are around this. It's been tough being in limbo since March waiting to find out if I'll even get a shot at the dream job I was offered...

3 out of the 4 got their first choice of unit 🙂

Hi Ft1989
It's really hard to know what will happen. What is clear is the traffic levels that recruitment was carried out for in 2019 clearly are not going to be back for the foreseeable future. Current discussions are at least 3 years, which naturally would have an impact on staffing plans in any industry. But no one has a crystal ball. Nothing has been officially publicly announced around plans for those recruited or currently at the college, and it is right for those individuals to hear first before the general public, whatever the decision. I think some difficult discussions and decisions will take place over the coming weeks and months.

Hopefully sensible decisions are made and rather than simply chop people, keep those successful applicants on file to recall back for training when the demand increases again in a year/2 years/3 years time. Be under no illusion, there will always be a need for trainees in the future with an ageing workforce.

A sense of realism has to be maintained - traffic is currently down 50% across the UK at the busiest time of year. Some airports are down over 85% and I am sure we will see significant changes to the scope of airports on offer in the UK because of the pandemic impact. The demise of Flybe and Thomas Cook, and now a pandemic are major changes and all have had a cumulative effect on the UK aviation and airport scene.

With regards to postings - you must be prepared to go anywhere. Perhaps things are different now, but my course got very little input on choices - there was no "option lists" or "rank the order of units you would like to go to".... we finished our course, a few days later were handed a letter with the unit and start date on it.

Keep strong - don't give up on dreams! Just be prepared to have to wait a bit longer and in the mean time get as much life experience as you can because it will all come in very useful.

Traffic levels, as an absolute, are not particularly good as an indicator of staffing requirements. 2019 traffic levels were, and would be again, completely unmanageable without lots overtime (currently 'removed'), and continual deployment of office based staff. Let's say that, for example, and admittedly with a bit of a 'back of a fag packet' factoring, the current staffing levels would be needed to handle 6,000 movements a day. The 8,500 movements a day from 2019 may not return soon, or perhaps they will sooner than many predict, who knows, however 6,000 a day may make a return by, let's say, spring 2021. OK, levels are still a third down, but staffing requirement is the same, the impending retirement wave is still in place, and yet again, NATS seemingly are intent on cutting recruitment. I am very well aware immediate cost savings are required, but cannot help feeling anything other than at the very least continuing the 'current' pre-Covid recruitment numbers will result in a major staffing shortage in the not too distant future. It's almost as if NATS had never seen such a scenario before....

Equally, the current training timing is not that far off 3 years from entry to validity is it?

Thanks for this. Yeah, I hope that even in the worst case scenario, NATS will invite us back at a point in the (hopefully not-too-distant) future. Especially given the time and cost they've spent through the recruitment process, medicals, security checks etc.

The cohort due to start in April had their offers withdrawn last week...

Where did you hear this?

Unfortunately I'm one of them!

Ahh so sorry to hear that mate. Were they able to give any indication as to next steps or would it simply be a case of you having to apply again when they are looking for people?

I am sure I will hear a similar thing from them soon sadly, I'll be gutted!

Thanks, yeah it's absolutely gutting news. We were told they'd be back in touch if things improve enough in the next year, so I assume that means we wouldn't have to re-apply.

Fingers crossed it does.

I've just seen on an Instagram feed that I follow that they've released all thr trainees this morning.

I’m probably the bearer of bad news here...NATS have announced that they are terminating the contracts of all TATC’s currently within the training process. Sorry to say that I wouldn’t be keeping too many hopes of a place on a training course for the foreseeable future. Best of wishes to all🤞

ATC Jobs
 

That's not wholly correct: sadly those in the initial training phase have been offered a voluntary exit package now, or can stay with the company until the end of October to consider any redeployment opportunities, if they wish - however, whichever they chose, their contract will end in November. This applies to just over 120 people, but over twice that number remain within the system, awaiting unit training.

Commiserations to everyone affected - all very sad :sad:

https://www.independent.co.uk/travel...t-b447250.html

Quotes in this article suggest that the (~275!) trainees awaiting unit training will meet NATS projected requirements for the next 2 years. Given the lead time required to recruit and run a initial training course, that would suggest no new recruitment for at least 1 year, probably longer?

Any word if the people let go will have the option to return to training (without re-interviewing etc) once demand returns? That would surely be the fair thing to do, although it would of course further delay the chances of any 'new' recruitment.

They're saying at the earliest, 2022 is when they'd look to bring anyone back. They're giving us a "guaranteed right to return" meaning when they open recruitment we wouldn't need to jump through hoops such as interviews etc, and we'd be given priority.

If they take the voluntary exit package, their contract ends on the 31st September with redundancy "compensation". If you wait to stay on until October for them to find opportunities (which they've said is gonna be very very very slim), then the contract will end in November. They've killed off the whole of the college - even the people who are 2 weeks from graduating (they literally had ABES to do and had already passed all other exams), in favour of keeping the people with their student licenses.

Strategically, getting rid of TATCs but not SATCs just stops them running off to graduate with other ANSPs. Clever really.

I believe the majority of TATCs at CTC are training for AC are they not? Unless the individual wanted to move out of the UK then they are going to struggle to find an ANSP that requires their student license. I think it's simply that they do not expect to have a space to train them with the levels of predicted traffic. This news will hit every controller as they know how it feels to go through the system and the realisation that there is another !!!! storm on the horizon. To have the rug pulled from underneath you at the early stage of your career is abhorrent.

I do hope it all works out for everybody concerned. I know it's little consolation however the RAF and Navy are desperately short of ATCOs.

I have an email address for a recruiter if anybody wishing to ask any questions requires any information.

ATC Jobs
 

The student licence is issued on successful completion of the rating course, so none of those leaving will have one. It's a dreadful situation, but none of the options, realistic or otherwise, are any better, unfortunately; the traffic & the training availability simply isn't there.

Hi,

I received the phone call for passing stage 3 in March, however, no other information could be given as to a date for a medical/ training due to the deteriorating COVID-19 situation. Since then I have received no correspondence from them.

I think I can safely assume my application has been withdrawn, due to the announcement of 122 trainees currently in the system being terminated.

Has anyone in a similar situation to mine received any contact from NATS as to what will happen to our applications? Will they keep our information and call us back when things improve? Will we need to go through the application process again?

Thanks in advance

Hi my stage 3 was due in March, I received an email last month saying recruitment was terminated for possibly 2 years and they will keep my details and once things pick up I will go back the stage I was on which is stage 3 so it is safe to assume there won’t be any new starters for now

Hi Niall,

I'm in the same situation as you. I got a call a week into lockdown to say I'd passed stage 3 (exactly the same as you by the sounds of it). I then had an email from NATS in September saying that we won't have to go through the whole application process again but will be able to pick up where we left off when the time comes....

I wonder what people's thoughts are regarding training picking up again? The official line was no college trainees needed until 2022. At the moment NATS are planning to be prepared for a best-case scenario of 75% of 2019 traffic this summer. With the expected upcoming retirement among the ATCO workforce and the 3+ year training time, I can't help but feel that things are looking positive for training restarting in the not-too-distant future? Others have also mentioned that there isn't a linear correlation between traffic levels and staffing requirements - e.g. 80-90% of 2019 traffic might still require a workforce of a similar size to what was needed for 100% of 2019 traffic levels. Am I being too optimistic?

Firstly, the prospects for this summer seem highly uncertain and overall quite pessimistic. There may be some improvement vs summer 2020, but perhaps not that much if travel restrictions are almost certain to continue in some form. Certainly 75% of summer 2019 seems unlikely. I think it is safe to assume there won't be any need for new controllers this year.

When considering longer term, I think it is more positive. The "end game" for Covid does now seem clear. By late summer, most major economies will have vaccinated large portions of their populations. With possible booster jabs in Autumn (and ongoing as needed) to counter new variants, it seems likely that Covid will be under control by the end of 2021. By 2022, most travel restrictions should be lifted. There will still be a longer-term, structural reduction in air travel (eg, zoom replacing business meetings, recessions), but this should be limited compared with all of the leisure travelers who will still want to go on holiday. 75%+ of summer 2019 in summer 2022 seems realistic.

How this translates to controller recruitment - who knows? There is a big backlog of trainees to be processed before they think about any new recruitment. then there are the trainees who were let-go last year who I believe have some sort of first refusal on any new vacancies.

In a scenario where NATS start requiring new trainees out of the college in mid/late 2022, those trainees would have to start college at the start of 2022. In that case, we could see recruitment in late 2021? This is very optimistic. More likely, I would say, is recruitment beginning again perhaps in mid 2022.

Disclaimer: this is all pure speculation :)

My prediction based on previous years*: pent-up demand has 2019 traffic demand by 2022, but with redundancies, retirements and resentment the controller workforce will a fraction of 2019 levels. The CAA will blame NATS for the UKs inability to handle the traffic demand and fine them enough that they need to get rid of further controllers while frantically recruiting cheaper trainees to replace them. About a year after massive recruitment they will realise there aren’t enough seats for all the trainees and they’ll have to put half in the holding pool and lay-off some more and years will pass with the system creaking at the edges, all the while the CAA mandating lower costs and higher service levels with impossible timescales (when recruitment to validation takes about 3 years and validation is not the same as the experienced OJTIs, managers and assessors who have left).

*past performance is no guarantee of future results
CAP2100 Project Palamon