Students train at the College of Air Traffic Control for up to 12 months and work on high-tech computer simulators which recreate real air traffic situations for practical training. They are taught by instructors who have been controllers themselves.
Once trainees graduate from the college, students are posted to a unit – either an area control centre or an airport control tower – and work as a trainee air traffic controller, building up valuable practical training and experience before being accepted and validated as a working controller. The entire process takes, on average, three years.