After you finish in the college (at Whiteley one year, can't speak for Gloucester) and get posted to unit (which might not be immediate due to holding) you get a pay rise up to the trainee pay point and get shift pay, which is total about £39k at the moment for Swanwick, and will increase slightly in the new year with the annual pay rise. Anticipate that it will take about 18m to 2 years from finishing in the college to validating at an Area unit and you *shouldn't* be disappointed.

thank you for the all the responses and just to clarify the college is about 1 year and then you get posted to unit after 1 year that’s when you get pay rise to £39k or am i reading it wrong.

1 year at Whiteley (assuming you don't need to resit anything, or get held up due to pipeline issues)
At some point soon after finishing you'll get posted to a unit, and once posted you'll get your pay rise; the quoted figure is current for Swanwick+Heathrow, everywhere else is varying degrees of slightly less.

Sorry to rake up an older thread but I've been unable to find an answer searching around elsewhere.

Is it possible to be streamed into Tower/Aerodrome training whilst on the Swanwick course still or is it ONLY Gloucester now that offers this? I know its 100% Tower/Aerodrome at Gloucester but is Swanwick 100% Area now or more akin to 90% Area - 10% Tower etc?

Whiteley is only doing Area at the moment. All Tower and Approach Radar is done at Gloucester.

Sub Contracted by NATS to Global ATS at Gloucester. (Correct me if I'm wrong)
At what point do NATS select who goes to which college?
Long time since I did any of that; I did ADV/ADI in the first year, ACS in the second year and APS in the third year so all of us who graduated after the 3 year course could have been posted anywhere, the final selection being made at the beginning of the third year.

Cheers. Do you know if its possible to be re-streamed once on a course? Just concious that I'd ideally much prefer to be airport based but it appears there are only Swanwick courses available within the next few months.

I understand you get no choice, NATS decide where you will do your rating courses not you.

Chevvron, a lots changed, as people have already alluded to here, some people are being offered courses in Swanwick or Gloucester which does give a choice in some form...

Highly unlikely you'll get re-streamed. Have you asked the question if there are any Gloucester courses coming up?

It’s also worth noting that going to Gloucester doesn’t guarantee an airport. There’s the possibility you’d get sent to TC.

Before I retired several people came through my unit who had been re-streamed having been found to be 'unsuitable' for Area radar; they had already done ADV/ADI so after a period of consolidation they could be sent on a stand alone APS course.

The college at Gloucester is run by a privale company not by NATS.

Isn't NATS a private company?

Yeah of course. But NATS trainees sent there to do ADI & APS can also be sent to TC. The question asked was based around going to Gloucester to end up at an airport. I was just adding that TC is also a possibility as a NATS posting with APS.