Air Traffic Control / Coastguard / Air rescue as Careers?

[52andblue]

Long shot, but MN can be a source of amazing info so asking here...

Can anyone give an overview of how to get into either of these as a career.

My ds, 16, has ASD so cannot join the Military. BUT he is interested, he tells me this morning, in ATC / Coastguard Air rescue.

He is good at Maths, Physics, Geography and ICT all of which I imagine would be needed but I don't know any more?

Obvs I need to go off an Google like mad but am trying to keep him and his (also ASD) sibling on track re GCSE's etc and so was hoping someone on MN might be able to chip in some experience / advice ?

Bump

ATC careers can be found here. Air traffic control college is based in Bournemouth for England and you need to be 18 and have 5 gcses grade 4+. Good career option!

Air traffic control is super well paid if I remember rightly
A lot of the coast guard are voluntary but do have paid roles, but I imagine these will tend to go to those with that voluntary experience. May be wrong.
You can be a flight paramedic for the air ambulance. Getting a job as a pilot will require having a commercial licence already which is at least 155 flying hours at probably £3-400 an hour. I think it’s estimated that getting through the CPL costs about £50k?
Quite a few people in my family have pilots licenses and looked into helicopters and the costs to learn made planes being a hobby look positively reasonable!

Start the cadet corps.

ATC is very different indeed to the coastguard and maritime agency.

As handmademitlove said, if he gets into ATC it can be a very good career option indeed.

Family member works for ATC and it's very very hard to get through the training and many people drop out. Also, if I remember correctly, if you fail one part of the training you cannot retake and you are removed. Just so you know - it's a highly pressured job and needs strong nerves and a calm disposition. Obviously you know if your son could handle that.