As 2023 leaves us and we bid a fond greeting to 2024, many will be undertaking a period of reflection and, as is tradition, we'll take a quick look back at ATC Training over the year. Before that, an extraordinary thanks needs to be given to all of our mentors, examiners, instructors and ATC training staff that make everything that we do possible.

Mentoring controllers is hard work. Our mentors take people who have likely never, ever worked with, in or near Air Traffic Management before and, within the confines of our moderately pretend environment, we turn them into our approximation of Air Traffic Controllers. Over the years, this task becomes more and more complicated - technology changes, our procedures develop, demand increases and subsequently, the pressure that our controllers face is ever changing. If it weren't for the diligence and tenacity of all of our mentoring team, we'd progress nobody through ratings and VATSIM UK would not be the enjoyable place that it is for so many. What many of our students might not appreciate is that where an average mentoring session is 90 minutes, a mentor will likely spend time prepping before that session as well as time afterwards to review notes or images and finalising a report. A rough calculation suggests that the divisions mentors have likely spent over 3,200 hours in 2023 supporting student development.

To all mentors, past and present - thank you so much for giving up your time.

Exams
The division conducted 166 examinations this year, resulting in 145 rating upgrades. Notably, thanks in no small part to the efforts of our very own Harry, we've seen a record 12 C1's issued in a calendar year. By contrast, 2022 saw only six C1 ratings issued. This uplift for 2023 is a tremendous achievement and VATSIM UK owes Harry a massive and heartfelt thanks.

Mentoring
It's been a strong year for mentoring across ATC Training. This year, we've seen 1,681 mentoring sessions. Notably, over 50% of these (851) were conducted within TGNC - another whopping statistic showing the dedication of our mentoring team in TGNC.

Autumn represented the greatest throughput of mentoring for the division, with Q4 quickly following. Whilst these statistics don't necessarily tell us anything, they allow us to benchmark progress in the new year and determine whether any changes that we make to training processes are effective, holding us back or indifferent.

I am hopeful for a progressive start to 2024. New training places will be issued, we'll appoint a new Enroute TGI and facilitate handover between them and Harry and we'll continue to deliver training in the best way that we can, complying with GCAP and pushing the division ahead in the best way that we can.

Summary
2023's been a good year for the division in many respects; with record C1s issued and huge progress in our OBS > S1 numbers, we see early indications that we're trending in the right direction. The impetus is on all of us now to continue pushing, continue delivering the very best that we can and furthering this great hobby that we participate in.

Sadly, good things come to an end. As many of you know, Harry will be stepping down from his TGI and Area Operations Coordinator posts to pursue a new career. Harry's (temporary, I hope!) departure will be a tremendous loss to the division and we owe him a huge debt of gratitude. I look forward to Harry's return one day and hope that we can collectively fill the very, very large shoes that he leaves vacant.

For now, Happy New Year to all of you. A meeting of the DSG is planned for January in which I'll be presenting my thoughts so far and identifying early opportunities for progress. Once the DSG have had sight of this and opportunity to comment, I'll be sharing a breakdown of that plan publicly and working with the ATC Training and TG staff to incorporate it. Until then, stay safe, happy flighting and I'll see you all soon!

Adam