I saw those posts too. Hopefully we're lucky enough to receive that call in the next couple of days ourselves.

I have assessment center this week, good luck to the others that will be going or have gone already.

I stayed 10 minutes away and was warned not to take the M80 just in case, took a twisty back way that ended up faster and was 40 minutes early. Wasn't even the first one there.

I've made it through and been offered a role!

The people who said it's better to not know before the assessment day are right, but you probably won't be disadvantaged knowing a little so maybe dig around a little :p

Is it safe to say that if you don't make it to a panel interview or far enough into the day to retake the online tests that you're pretty much out of the race? skyb1ue and Skuppy23 congrats on making it through! good luck on the course.

Hey guys,
I have an assessment day this Monday. Would anyone be willing to tell me what the order of proceedings in the day is going to be?
And how long until they get back to us regarding the outcome... Took 3 months to find out a result after I sat the online test (don't know if that's a good thing or not)...

Any info would be appreciated!

Hi, guys, does anyone know when the assessment centre will be happening after the online assessment? How long did it take for the previous assessment centre to start after the online assessment?
Cheers

You should receive an email inviting you to attend a particular session, though they will likely also try to call you. If you get an email just make sure to advise them that you won't be able to answer calls.

Anyone received any call or emails?
 

Hey has anyone received an email or phone calls after the online assessment?

Anyone gotten the response from after the assessment? Last one I got was the automatic one saying it might be after new years before they got in contact. That was about 12 weeks ago now, though...

EDIT: Finally got a response.

Given that stuff all planes are flying now, I imagine ATC training may go into hibernation again. It's hard to be trained when there's no traffic to play with.

Recruitment is open again, positive news in difficult times

I'm early 30's with a wife and young child. Have been running a business which has been hammered by the current health situation and thinking about a career switch. Am I crazy to try and go down this path at my age? Wondering if anyone has insight into how mature-aged trainees tend to go, assuming they can make it into the training course.

There's nothing stopping you. However, make sure you go in with eyes wide open:
-The Academy stage of training will probably last longer than you expect, and longer than what you are told at the beginning of the course. Can your family budget afford the fairly-poor training wage for 18 months or more?
-You will need extremely understanding and supportive family - for the best chance at success, you need to dedicate virtually everything to your goal while you are training: home study, getting enough rest, no holidays (outside the standard shutdown periods) while you're at the college.
-You will probably learn at a slower rate than your younger course mates. There's very little consolidation time built in to the course. Expect to need to do extra sim exercises, in your own time, to consolidate your learning.
-Historically those over 30 at the beginning of training do have a lower success rate at the end. That doesn't mean it's impossible - not at all - but other lifestyle factors (responsibilities like a wife and kids or a mortgage, for example!) do tend to pile on the pressure for people in your situation. While you're training, the more of those external factors that you can quarantine yourself from, the better - but that's not always compatible with family life.
It's a great job if you do get there, though. Good luck.

Agree with everything said above. If you scroll back far enough in this thread there are a few first hand accounts of training as an older person. Generally, the older the trainee the lower the chance of success. The phrase I heard many times at the college was "we've never had anyone over 40 pass the course." I knew several people in their early 30s who have recently graduated; turned 30 myself whilst training and I don't think I had any more of a difficult time than the younger people. There were four parents with young children at the college with me. Two graduated; all mentioned family life as a complicating factor in terms of finances as well as having to sacrifice time with them.

That's not quite correct, there have been a few; certainly you can count them on one hand in the last decade or so though.

Oh yeah, definitely just a catchphrase they use. I was trained by someone who started when they were 40 - still one of the best ATCs I know.