If you've read through the rest of the site thoroughly and think you'd like to become an Air Traffic Controller (ATCO), here's where to apply. Before you do, though, please read through this section with particular care as it offers useful tips and hints, tells you all about our medical requirements and outlines the application process.
Student Air Traffic Controllers represent the future of NATS. We invest significant time in training ATCOs to become responsible and competent controllers, working flexibly within the regulations to make decisions which maintain safety and ensure the efficient flow of air traffic. It does take time to acquire the level of skill and competence that is the mark of a qualified Air Traffic Controller. There will of course be ups and downs as you progress through professional training, but we will support you every step of the way.
Our recruitment and selection process is designed to ensure that we learn as much as possible about you in the limited time we have available. The assessments we use are all designed to help us make fair and accurate decisions about your suitability for training and a career in Air Traffic Control. The information in this section has been designed to help you to understand our selection process, and to provide tips and guidance that will enable you to demonstrate how you meet our requirements.
If you want to find out more about our application process, then click on each of the stages below.
Register/Online Test
When you click apply, you'll be asked to register your details and complete an online application form. Our recruitment administration operates entirely online and we will communicate with you via email, so it's important that you maintain a regular check on your email inbox including spam/junk. After registering, you'll be invited to take an online test which will involve checking information The online test is the first filter in our process so it is important that you ensure that you are ready to take the test and that you are in a suitable location.
Assessment Day One
If successful you'll be asked to book a date to come to one of our assessment centres, which are held at either one of our three locations in the UK:
- Corporate and Technical Centre at Whiteley, Fareham, Hampshire
- Scottish and Oceanic Control Centre in Prestwick, Ayrshire
Here you will undertake a series of paper and pencil tests. Initially you will take an ATC test and a numeracy test. If you score well on these tests you will be invited to stay and take two further tests, a spatial reasoning test, and a logical analysis test called Diagramming. The outcome of assessment day one will be issued within 15 working days from the end of the session.
For information on how to prepare for these tests, please click here.
Assessment Day Two
If you're successful on Assessment Day One, you'll be invited to complete an online bio-data questionnaire which asks for more details about you. Once we have received this you will be invited to book another appointment at our Corporate and Technical Centre in Whiteley to undertake some computer tests. These include the NATS Assessment tests, FEAST test battery and DART.
Click here for more information on these tests.
The outcome assessment day two will be sent to you within 15 working days.
Assessment Day Three
If you were successful on assessment day two you'll be invited to complete an online occupational personality questionnaire and to book an appointment to attend the final assessment. This will consist of a group exercise and a competency based structured interview with trained assessors from across the NATS business. These may include operational ATCOs, HR staff and members of the Human Factors group.
During both the group exercise and the competency interview, you will be assessed against a set of the core competencies which make a successful operational ATCO.
These competencies are ATC Motivation; Conscientiousness and Rule Adherence; Decisiveness and Confidence; Emotional Stability; Error Awareness; Open to Learning and Development; Planning, Decision Making and Problem Solving, and Team Working.
More information on the group exercise and interview, including some hints on how to prepare, can be found here.
As with the previous stage, the outcome of the assessment day three will be sent to you within 15 working days.
Medical/Security Clearance
If you're successful on Assessment Day Three, you'll represent the top 3% of applicants and will be sent some medical information to complete. Should you meet the basic medical requirements you will then be invited to book and attend a European Class 3 medical in our Swanwick medical department. You will then be placed into a pool of applicants waiting to be allocated to a course. This can sometimes take several months for the business to dictate manpower requirements. Once you have a provisional allocation to a course we will then continue with the formalities of security and reference checking.
Our training courses start in Jan/Feb, April/May, July/August and October/November every year.
If you're not selected, please do not be too disheartened; the selection process is very rigorous. Due to the very high cost of training, we have to be as sure as we can about our selection decisions. Of course you can try again, subject to a maximum of three attempts at the selection process but a 12-month gap must be left between the initial test date.