Parc Aviation SSTR (merged)
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Interview is 2 days:
Day 1 starts with a couple of classroom tests (after introduction), consisting of a math test, pesonality questionaire, verbal reasoning. Afterward you either have in interview with an aviation psychologist or the simulator grading.
Day 2 if either the interview or the simulator.
The sim is done at Air-Lingus training center on a 737-200. They check your general handling and IR skills. I can't remember the exact details, but you will get a good pre-briefing. You will fly as crew with another trainee, and they will also be looking for your pnf skills.
We flew from MAN.
The interview you will be asked to tell you live story. The psych will ask you to get in some sort of relaxing dialog.
I can recommend Parc. I followed their course, and it is very professional. The training aids are very good, the instructors are the best!
When will you be doing the assessment? Good luck anyway!
Yours,
H
Day 1 starts with a couple of classroom tests (after introduction), consisting of a math test, pesonality questionaire, verbal reasoning. Afterward you either have in interview with an aviation psychologist or the simulator grading.
Day 2 if either the interview or the simulator.
The sim is done at Air-Lingus training center on a 737-200. They check your general handling and IR skills. I can't remember the exact details, but you will get a good pre-briefing. You will fly as crew with another trainee, and they will also be looking for your pnf skills.
We flew from MAN.
The interview you will be asked to tell you live story. The psych will ask you to get in some sort of relaxing dialog.
I can recommend Parc. I followed their course, and it is very professional. The training aids are very good, the instructors are the best!
When will you be doing the assessment? Good luck anyway!
Yours,
H
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Thanks for your help, I have an interview the 29th and the 30th of september.
Are you fliing for an airline now???
Are there any technical questions during the interview?
Are you fliing for an airline now???
Are there any technical questions during the interview?
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Parc Aviation SSTR (merged)
Hey Folks out there,
I just wanted to know if somebody did the 737 type rating course with Parc Aviation.
Do you have some information about that for me. How are the chances of getting an airline Job with them afterwords....
Hope somebody can help me!
Thank you in advance!
I just wanted to know if somebody did the 737 type rating course with Parc Aviation.
Do you have some information about that for me. How are the chances of getting an airline Job with them afterwords....
Hope somebody can help me!
Thank you in advance!
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Or knows/heard something about it?
Why you want the info on Parc?
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Parc Aviation SSTR (merged)
Has anyone on here been through the Parc B737 SSTR? I have spoken to several who have been to the selection but didn’t make it onto the course. These people have provided some useful information regarding the selection process, but has anyone been through the course? Parc say they have placed everyone in employment, so are you all happily flying?
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Parc Aviation SSTR (merged)
I recently attended the Parc Aviation SSTR assessment in Dublin. The assessment is for the Boeing 737-3/4/500 type rating from which Parc say they have a 100% success rate of placing students with airlines. There is limited information regarding the number of courses they run a year and which airlines students are placed with. The cost for the assessment with Parc is £500, but you will need to spend two full days in Dublin. At the end of it you may, or may not be offered a place on the £18,500 TR course, but the selling point of the assessment is that even if you are not successful, you will receive feedback to help future assessments with airlines etc.
I searched high and low for information on this assessment prior to attending it and found very little, so I thought I would post my own experiences for those considering it. I do not comment on the implications of SSTRs, and I hope this post does not degenerate into the tired old SSTR debate.
I applied to Parc several months ago and I was contacted by them very shortly after filling out the application form. I paid up the £500 for the assessment and was given a date to fly to Dublin.
Several weeks after being given the assessment date by Parc, I was offered a job flying turboprops with a small European operator. I accepted the job of course. Having secured a job on turboprops I had no intention of paying for the Parc TR, but as I had paid for the assessment I thought I would attended it for my own information and hopefully learn more about my areas of weakness.
The assessment takes place at the Dublin Parc offices. On arrival at 0900 I was directed into a small room with 9 other candidates. There was no introduction or information given regarding the course and after a short wait it was in with the written tests. They consist of:
*40 min Verbal Reasoning test
*Un-timed Psychological test
*30 min Numerical Reasoning test
After the written tests are completed you are split into 2 groups. One group has their interview with the Psychologist and the other has the simulator assessment. I was to have the simulator assessment, but the sim slot wasn’t scheduled until 1900 and the written tests finish at 1200, so there was lots of time to kill. The assessment is conducted on a B737-200 sim and takes approximately 30 mins. Basic instrument flying skills are tested as well as PNF skills. The route is a SID out of Dublin, then RVs for ILS and it’s all flown raw data.
The following day I had my 30min interview with the Psychologist. Questions covered flying history, family, reason for wanting to do course etc.
Even though the assessment sounds quite substantial, it felt almost superficial. Except for the sim assessment, there seems little interest taken in candidates sitting the tests and getting information on the TR course was like getting blood from a stone. In addition to this I really think the assessment could easily be done in one day. I would say having it over two days has more to do with Parc saving money than anything else. Unfortunately it wasn’t a very positive experience and I learned very little from actually taking the tests, but I hoped the feedback would be revealing.
I received the feedback by mail about a week after doing the assessment. It consists of three pages.
The first page is an Assessment of Core Competencies which takes the result from all the written tests and compares yours to a set of norms. It really means nothing to anyone who doesn’t know how they have came to the adjusted scores. I couldn’t glean any useful information from this set of results. It seems the majority of competencies (almost all actually) are taken from the psychological test with the verbal reasoning and numerical tests counting for very little. There is no information provided regarding how well you did at the verbal or numerical tests. At the bottom is your overall score and the “minimum score required to be at airline standard”. As I said, I got no useful information from this page at all.
The second page is a written report from the psychologist. Mine was only several lines long and apart from some strange comments that contradict my working experience, it really said nothing at all. I was hoping for a lot more here.
The third page is the simulator assessment report. Most of which was taken up with flying details, licence number etc. At the bottom of the page was a two line comment from the assessing pilot and a score out of 10.
And that’s it! No letter, No thanks but no thanks and no guidance on what any of it means. It was all a bit disappointing and you are left wondering if you have been taken for a ride. Anyone thinking, as I was, that the feedback would reveal areas to improve on, think again.
Anyway, that was my experience with Parc. It may differ from other peoples, but I hope it gives anyone thinking of doing it a better idea of what to expect.
I searched high and low for information on this assessment prior to attending it and found very little, so I thought I would post my own experiences for those considering it. I do not comment on the implications of SSTRs, and I hope this post does not degenerate into the tired old SSTR debate.
I applied to Parc several months ago and I was contacted by them very shortly after filling out the application form. I paid up the £500 for the assessment and was given a date to fly to Dublin.
Several weeks after being given the assessment date by Parc, I was offered a job flying turboprops with a small European operator. I accepted the job of course. Having secured a job on turboprops I had no intention of paying for the Parc TR, but as I had paid for the assessment I thought I would attended it for my own information and hopefully learn more about my areas of weakness.
The assessment takes place at the Dublin Parc offices. On arrival at 0900 I was directed into a small room with 9 other candidates. There was no introduction or information given regarding the course and after a short wait it was in with the written tests. They consist of:
*40 min Verbal Reasoning test
*Un-timed Psychological test
*30 min Numerical Reasoning test
After the written tests are completed you are split into 2 groups. One group has their interview with the Psychologist and the other has the simulator assessment. I was to have the simulator assessment, but the sim slot wasn’t scheduled until 1900 and the written tests finish at 1200, so there was lots of time to kill. The assessment is conducted on a B737-200 sim and takes approximately 30 mins. Basic instrument flying skills are tested as well as PNF skills. The route is a SID out of Dublin, then RVs for ILS and it’s all flown raw data.
The following day I had my 30min interview with the Psychologist. Questions covered flying history, family, reason for wanting to do course etc.
Even though the assessment sounds quite substantial, it felt almost superficial. Except for the sim assessment, there seems little interest taken in candidates sitting the tests and getting information on the TR course was like getting blood from a stone. In addition to this I really think the assessment could easily be done in one day. I would say having it over two days has more to do with Parc saving money than anything else. Unfortunately it wasn’t a very positive experience and I learned very little from actually taking the tests, but I hoped the feedback would be revealing.
I received the feedback by mail about a week after doing the assessment. It consists of three pages.
The first page is an Assessment of Core Competencies which takes the result from all the written tests and compares yours to a set of norms. It really means nothing to anyone who doesn’t know how they have came to the adjusted scores. I couldn’t glean any useful information from this set of results. It seems the majority of competencies (almost all actually) are taken from the psychological test with the verbal reasoning and numerical tests counting for very little. There is no information provided regarding how well you did at the verbal or numerical tests. At the bottom is your overall score and the “minimum score required to be at airline standard”. As I said, I got no useful information from this page at all.
The second page is a written report from the psychologist. Mine was only several lines long and apart from some strange comments that contradict my working experience, it really said nothing at all. I was hoping for a lot more here.
The third page is the simulator assessment report. Most of which was taken up with flying details, licence number etc. At the bottom of the page was a two line comment from the assessing pilot and a score out of 10.
And that’s it! No letter, No thanks but no thanks and no guidance on what any of it means. It was all a bit disappointing and you are left wondering if you have been taken for a ride. Anyone thinking, as I was, that the feedback would reveal areas to improve on, think again.
Anyway, that was my experience with Parc. It may differ from other peoples, but I hope it gives anyone thinking of doing it a better idea of what to expect.
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Did they recommend you for the scheme then?
Thank you for taking the time to post your comments and congrats with your TP job. Your experience of Parc sounds quite disappointing and not in line with a lot of the comments i hear about their MCC course - which i was seriously considering until i read this!
Be interesting to hear other peoples experience of Parc.
Thank you for taking the time to post your comments and congrats with your TP job. Your experience of Parc sounds quite disappointing and not in line with a lot of the comments i hear about their MCC course - which i was seriously considering until i read this!
Be interesting to hear other peoples experience of Parc.
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Many thanks for the information provided.
Number Cruncher, I did my MCC with them in November and I would highly reccomend them for their professionalism and competence.
All the other guys I know who attended the MCC with them were seriously satisfied.
I have no experience with the B737 SSTR scheme.
Regards
Number Cruncher, I did my MCC with them in November and I would highly reccomend them for their professionalism and competence.
All the other guys I know who attended the MCC with them were seriously satisfied.
I have no experience with the B737 SSTR scheme.
Regards
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It was interesting that no where on the correspondence did it say if I had been offered a place or not. The give away that I hadn’t was my score on the psychometric testing was 52, and the score required to be of “Airline Standard” was 60. It was so vague I actually had to contact Parc to double check I hadn’t got a place.
I wouldn’t let my post put you off doing the MCC with Parc as by all accounts it’s quite good. In fact, half the people doing the assessment had done their MCC through Parc and were very positive about it.
I wouldn’t let my post put you off doing the MCC with Parc as by all accounts it’s quite good. In fact, half the people doing the assessment had done their MCC through Parc and were very positive about it.
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Parc SSTR assessment & Selection
Hello All,
I sat the assessment tests - paid 800E, did verbal and numerical tests, untimed 183 question psychological questionaire, and psychological interview.
They claim they have a 100% employment record. Given that they have a selection about 5 per year and that they 'accept' 2 or 4 each time makes life nice and easy for PARC as they have only 2 or 4 candidate to find jobs for. And this is the problem.. They are under no obligation what-so-ever to find you work, and although they have contacts within the industry, one they're done with you, you find yourself in a position to find work yourself just as much as PARC finding you work - even with 30,000E spent. I don't want to get into the dabate on sponsoring yourself as that a matter of personal opinion so lets get to the selection process....
It is exactly as the person who started this thread described!
40 minute verbal which is the "Watson and Glazer" test. Inference, interpretation, etc. English is my first language and its not easy. The numerical reasoning is very straight forward - just need to be fast. Its the mathematics one would have done by the age of 13 or 14 in school!!!!!!!!!! 30 minutes test.
You cant pass or fail the psychological interview or personality quesioaire - its just you describing your opinion in the quesionaire and talking about your life and flying in the interview etc.
Simcheck is: Take off and departure brief (BE CONFIDENT AND SURE OF YOURSELF!! No "am" "uh" "eh" - be very sure what your brief is. Liffy2A SID and once you pass the DUB VOR its time for airwork. This could be anything - accellerating level, climbs, climb & turn, descent or descent and turn, steep turns. Asked what your QDM/QDR is? Scan is CRITICAL and THE VSI is my opinion is ULTRA important. Then Radar vectors to a go around or to a landing and then airborne again/doing the G/A to do another vectored ILS.
No hold entry asked, but - the key is - Any Aspect Of Your IR FLYING Can Be Asked!!!
I got feeback 5 days later....PARC use this as one of their selling points of the course/selection procedure but, WHAT A JOKE. THEIR FEEDBACK IS USELESS!!!!!!!!
Like the person who started this thread - this so called "feedback" is no good to anyone. No where in my life have i seen a report on a persons performance which was so false, unsupported, with no backing to support the given feedback. In my education and working life for example, team-work has been the back-bone of success, winning business and making ideas work. I have worked in many pressure multi crew roles - yet this "psychologist" will report back to you in the feedback that you only get pityful results from their "assessment" of your teamwork capabilities. which is one of the "core competencies"...Its bull****.
How can a person deduce, from a maths test, a verbal test and personality questionaire and interview about your family and training say to you that you have mediocre ability to "Plan ahead to avoid problems" its just not cunducive to anthing constructive and there no excuse for the feedback". You get no results from the numerical and verbal tests. The only meaningful result you get is from the sim-check, which is funny because he tells you at the time of the sim-check in his own words.
Its interesting to note that they ask you in the interview if you have applied to the CTC scheme, or any other airlines, and if you have been accepted for another selection by another airline. I indeed have been, and the person who started this thread stated they are working in a TurboProp job. Interestingly neiter of us was accepted.
In a nutshell, if you've been accepted by another airline, have a chance to work for another airline such as upcoming sim-check / interview, they will reject you. It seems that its so hard for "low-time" new pilots to get a start with their first job, PARC is a way in for those who cant get anywhere with their efforts. So whats the answer - dont tell them anything about any other prospect you have. The feedback is no good at all.
If you really want a place on the course:
1.... Dont tell the psychological interviewer that you have any other job opportunity.
2.... Myself and other applicants were advised by employees of PARC that the risk is too high. I could not believe this when i heard this!!!
3.....Ask PARC for e-mail addresses of as many past candidates. Interestingly they will only give you addresses of successful candidates, and none of unsuccessful candidates. Ask for addresses of unsuccessful candidates also and see if they can support any of my comments.
4.... Be very aware of the risk factor with SSTR whatever your opinion of them (Self Sponsored Type Rating Schemes) that have NO JOB GUARANTEE!!!
MAY 2006 BE A FRUITFUL YEAR FOR US ALL!
I sat the assessment tests - paid 800E, did verbal and numerical tests, untimed 183 question psychological questionaire, and psychological interview.
They claim they have a 100% employment record. Given that they have a selection about 5 per year and that they 'accept' 2 or 4 each time makes life nice and easy for PARC as they have only 2 or 4 candidate to find jobs for. And this is the problem.. They are under no obligation what-so-ever to find you work, and although they have contacts within the industry, one they're done with you, you find yourself in a position to find work yourself just as much as PARC finding you work - even with 30,000E spent. I don't want to get into the dabate on sponsoring yourself as that a matter of personal opinion so lets get to the selection process....
It is exactly as the person who started this thread described!
40 minute verbal which is the "Watson and Glazer" test. Inference, interpretation, etc. English is my first language and its not easy. The numerical reasoning is very straight forward - just need to be fast. Its the mathematics one would have done by the age of 13 or 14 in school!!!!!!!!!! 30 minutes test.
You cant pass or fail the psychological interview or personality quesioaire - its just you describing your opinion in the quesionaire and talking about your life and flying in the interview etc.
Simcheck is: Take off and departure brief (BE CONFIDENT AND SURE OF YOURSELF!! No "am" "uh" "eh" - be very sure what your brief is. Liffy2A SID and once you pass the DUB VOR its time for airwork. This could be anything - accellerating level, climbs, climb & turn, descent or descent and turn, steep turns. Asked what your QDM/QDR is? Scan is CRITICAL and THE VSI is my opinion is ULTRA important. Then Radar vectors to a go around or to a landing and then airborne again/doing the G/A to do another vectored ILS.
No hold entry asked, but - the key is - Any Aspect Of Your IR FLYING Can Be Asked!!!
I got feeback 5 days later....PARC use this as one of their selling points of the course/selection procedure but, WHAT A JOKE. THEIR FEEDBACK IS USELESS!!!!!!!!
Like the person who started this thread - this so called "feedback" is no good to anyone. No where in my life have i seen a report on a persons performance which was so false, unsupported, with no backing to support the given feedback. In my education and working life for example, team-work has been the back-bone of success, winning business and making ideas work. I have worked in many pressure multi crew roles - yet this "psychologist" will report back to you in the feedback that you only get pityful results from their "assessment" of your teamwork capabilities. which is one of the "core competencies"...Its bull****.
How can a person deduce, from a maths test, a verbal test and personality questionaire and interview about your family and training say to you that you have mediocre ability to "Plan ahead to avoid problems" its just not cunducive to anthing constructive and there no excuse for the feedback". You get no results from the numerical and verbal tests. The only meaningful result you get is from the sim-check, which is funny because he tells you at the time of the sim-check in his own words.
Its interesting to note that they ask you in the interview if you have applied to the CTC scheme, or any other airlines, and if you have been accepted for another selection by another airline. I indeed have been, and the person who started this thread stated they are working in a TurboProp job. Interestingly neiter of us was accepted.
In a nutshell, if you've been accepted by another airline, have a chance to work for another airline such as upcoming sim-check / interview, they will reject you. It seems that its so hard for "low-time" new pilots to get a start with their first job, PARC is a way in for those who cant get anywhere with their efforts. So whats the answer - dont tell them anything about any other prospect you have. The feedback is no good at all.
If you really want a place on the course:
1.... Dont tell the psychological interviewer that you have any other job opportunity.
2.... Myself and other applicants were advised by employees of PARC that the risk is too high. I could not believe this when i heard this!!!
3.....Ask PARC for e-mail addresses of as many past candidates. Interestingly they will only give you addresses of successful candidates, and none of unsuccessful candidates. Ask for addresses of unsuccessful candidates also and see if they can support any of my comments.
4.... Be very aware of the risk factor with SSTR whatever your opinion of them (Self Sponsored Type Rating Schemes) that have NO JOB GUARANTEE!!!
MAY 2006 BE A FRUITFUL YEAR FOR US ALL!