what educations/training is required to be an air traffic controller??

Question

and what is it that they do exactly?

Answer 1

The answer depends on what country you are in. I'm from the US so I'll give you that answer in a bit. If you are European, most European controllers are hired from government advertisements right to on the job training if they can pass the initial tests as possibly a stint at a government run academy. Some other European countries as well as Canada contract their ATC services to private countries. In that case, find which company it is and look up their requirements.

Now for the US. You have 3 options. You can go to the military and learn ATC there and should you wish, after leaving the service, apply to the FAA. From there I think they send you to the FAA academy to you can learn how civilian and military ATC differ and unify your experience and knowledge.

You can also if you have 3 years of progressively responsible work experience or 90 college credit hours apply off the street. You apply, and if accepted, take an entrance test called the AT SAT and if you pass and are selected from the group that was accepted and passed the AT SAT you get hired, go to the academy, and learn ATC. Traditionally this is the toughest road to hoe ESPECIALLY if you have little to know training in aviation. You're given in some cases 6 weeks to go from not knowing the first thing in the 7110.65 to being a real life controller. Odds are only 2% of initial applicants make it. Of those who get called after passing the AT SAT even then only 25% make the cut. Military and CTI trained controllers have on the order of a 98 plus percent pass percentage.

Your third option is go to a CTI (controller training initiative) school. 13 colleges and universities have been approved by the FAA to teach ATC as a major. 10 offer 4 year degrees, 2 offer associates degrees and one offers a technical degree. Training in these programs ranges from a tower simulator at the U of Alaska to a real ATC tower at CCBC where students work and learn. The FAA has agreed that anyone meeting the requirements set forth by these schools will get hired and progress to the academy.

Controllers are mainly responsible for the separation of airplanes and making the flow of air traffic move as fast and seamlessly as possible. If it weren’t for controllers, large jets wouldn’t be possible for commercial flight and the LAX’s and JFK’s of the world would still be grass strips. That many aircraft arriving at one time and at those speeds needs someone watching out for them.

Answer 2

oh those adult adult males are reliable human beings! the activity is fairly annoying, and coming from an airline pilot myself, they do a hell of a job pondering what proportion idiots have pilot licenses! lots of the A-checklist air site visitors controllers got here from protection stress, they consistently look the final controllers, they get carry of greater effective guidance provided that maximum of their guidance is on the activity. the different a million/2 are often college knowledgeable, earn a 2 to 4 3 hundred and sixty 5 days degree, then flow with the aid of an FAA certification course that's composed of written assessments and a real looking. i don't think of i've got ever heard of a controller that purely grew up listening to aviation radio and getting a job at some small airport working some plane an afternoon, yet i ought to be incorrect!

Answer 3

I think most ATC are ex-military but maybe there is a civilian school too .

Do ? Try to keep thousands of planes that are approaching airports from crashing into each other .
SFO lands a large airliner about every 30 seconds .
Mix that with take offs , small aircraft and adverse weather . . .

When in doubt google air traffic controller school

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ned=us&q=Air++Traffic++Controller++School&btnmeta%3Dsearch%3Dsearch=Search+the+Web

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Answer 4

For general career info: US occupational outlook handbook www.bls.gov/oco and can search 'air traffic controller'.