Some are back and some aren't, those i have spoken to who haven't started yet were 'fresher' trainees i.e only a few months into their courses before COVID and they're yet to receive an official restart date, but they are certainly going back at some point (my guess is still early 2023)

But there are definitely trainees back as we speak. How many, i don't know.

Little snippet of info from the NATS instagram today:

"we do not have a date for when we will be recruiting controllers again. It will most likely be 2023 at the very earliest."

A somewhat negative outlook :(

Hello all - long time reader first time poster.

I was offered a role on the Trainee Air Traffic Controller back in early March 2020 - obviously we all know what happened next.

Are many of you in the same situation as me? Last I heard from NATS was back in September when they emailed to say they 'are now beginning to plan when we may be able to begin returning those that are waiting to join, on a phased basis.'

If any of you are in the same situation, have you been offered training dates yet? or do you know of anyone who has?

Cheers
John

Hi John,
I'm in exactly the same position and haven't heard anything since September, unfortunately. Just waiting to hear and keeping fingers crossed.

Cheers

Same boat here, last email in September, nothing further heard :)

Hi John,

I am also in the same position. Last email in September and I was initially offered the position in March 2020.

The only person I have heard of returning is somebody who was cut after they had commenced training, they have just been invited back to start in January.

Fingers crossed we all here something soon. I am hoping this side of Christmas but who knows.

I'm still waiting to apply for ATC, I got an amazing opportunity in airside operations at my local airport now so I'm going to wait a few years to get experience and let the inevitable backlog of applicants calm (and to save up to cover the year of low-ish pay ;))

Any rumours as to when NATS may reopen applications for trainees?

The ones who had just started training in early 2020 but were then cancelled have now restarted (or at least some of them have). Then I presume there are still a few more people who were accepted but never got the chance to start a course, but after that the pool of applicants will be empty.

I'm not sure how often they start new courses, but they could need people fairly soon? Next autumn/winter maybe?

TATCO Training Start
 

Hi all,

Just thought I’d chip in with some info if anyone is still following this thread.

I passed selection and was “offered” a place back in March 2020.

I’ve now been given a start date of 6th June based at Whiteley (Course 311), and have received contracts etc.

If anyone else is in the same boat, it would be good to hear from you.

Thanks,
Allan

*I’m also aware of a Global course that starts on 3rd April*

Thanks for the update :ok:

If you were originally offered a place in March 2020, you are probably one of the last of the "old" cadets to be recalled. Hopefully this means they will open up recruitment again soon!

IT'S OPEN!
 

I got the official NATS email saying that the applications for trainee air traffic controllers, I won't be going for this one, I'm going to wait for 2024 when I have more experience in the airport

Recruitment open!

https://krb-sjobs.brassring.com/TGne...s=1474720_5722

NATS recruitment process is historically slow and that’s probably because of the amount of applicants and stages involved.
If you applied now I wouldn’t expect you (if successful) to start at college for 9-12 months.

Worth considering hey

same! i'm really excited

Anticipating a long wait. It's been so long since recruitment was last open - I imagine they are inundated.

Hey, same boat aswell completed stage 1 and stage 2 awaiting date for stage 3. I know there is no upper age limit but I'm 39 just wondered if anyone else is probably in the upper age bracket?

Hey guys, i've done stage 1 on the 12th but still waiting to hear if I made it to stage 2.
Still showing as application under review, was it faster for you?

I got the Stage 1 pass email, which included the link to sit the Stage 2 within 5 minutes of finishing Stage 1. I then got the Stage 2 pass email within minutes of finishing Stage 2, so for me it was near instant feedback but I dont know what's normal or to be expected. Fingers crossed for you! No news is still good news and you would think that if it were a rejection, they'd send it without much delay?

Is this for the Trainee ATC role ?

Same here, although I'm not getting my hopes up too much :O

The emails imply that everybody who passes Stage 1 & 2 gets an invite to Stage 3 and that we're not competing against each other (yet...)? That's great, but what happens if more people "pass" than there are available places on the interview days? Could there be an extra stage of filtering before they send out invites? I hope not....