Recomend me: Higher Education

Originally Posted by Rai86

Well thats not strictly accurate... but thanks for your pointless input And welcome back to the forum btw

Im not a maths genius, but im ok at it, and get by and dont have any specific problems

I'm having de ja vu

Originally Posted by Kate Moss

I'm having de ja vu

hmmm don't know if i got the quote bit right..?

Rai and I have already PM'd..alls hunky dory

Just me being a div

What sort of engineer do you want to be Rai?

Port/costal engineer (branch of civil engineering) has always seemed like a good job to me, given that you get to travel around the world working on massive ports!

Might be worth taking an HNC in the desired field as they're part time, bit less demanding than a part time degree, and from what I can tell worth almost as much as a degree so long as you can gain on the job experience.

My brief experience of geology/geotechnics (was just one unit on civils course) was that it wasn't as mathematically demanding as other engineering disciplines, although still takes an above average level of understanding, and it was basically think of a number, add a few, fck it lets just call it twenty!* No doubt you're fine though!

Terzaghi is the only equation I remember!

*obviously exaggerated alot, but it's all to do with the level of precesion required, and with the ground you whack such a massive FoS on then it don't matter if you're out by quite a bit!

My company sends our trainee engineers to Poole college. Most only do ONC (or whatever it's called these days) in mechanical engineering, which I found gives you a pretty good base in maths & sciences, stress, materials, processes etc.

It is very generic, but from memory, you have to have it to go on to HNC or higher in an engineering discipline. Don't know if your degree might qualify you to jump straight to that, or if you have A level maths maybe?

[timwilky]

Certainly I found that those on my mech eng degree that had come from A levels were at a disadvantage in that they did not have sufficient knowledge of basic mechanical engineering/thermo dynamics etc. as those like me that came from an ONC route.

However within the materials engineering requirement those that had studied chemistry for A level had the advantage. So swings and roundabouts really as far as entry requirement I should think.

But to be honest, I don't really think a HNC will cut it for getting the best jobs these days.

[yorkie_chris]

If you are going to do a degree, make sure you do as much practice in calculus as possible.

I gave up Engineering and switched to IT at University, precisely because of the pure mathematics. It was that I couldn't do it, I just hated it.

[anna]

Originally Posted by timwilky

Certainly I found that those on my mech eng degree that had come from A levels were at a disadvantage in that they did not have sufficient knowledge of basic mechanical engineering/thermo dynamics etc. as those like me that came from an ONC route.

However within the materials engineering requirement those that had studied chemistry for A level had the advantage. So swings and roundabouts really as far as entry requirement I should think.

But to be honest, I don't really think a HNC will cut it for getting the best jobs these days.

I agree with Tim on this one. I did a BEng Aerospace manufacturing Engineering, and many of my modules were taken with other students studying under the manufacturing engineering discipline.

I came up through the GNVQ route, and was completely disadvantaged when it came to chemistry, thermodynamics and material structures, however the course had prepared me with a grounding of calc.

Perhaps looking into a foundation year might be a better route then the HNC, and allows you insight into how your degree will be structured. If you are working within the industry, you might be able to use some of your experience to give you credits and be able to skip certain modules (I think this varies from university to university though).

To be honest even a degree these days only puts you on the same ground as everyone else out there, but getting chartered status and a Masters will serve you in good stead, so something for the future plan there.

Also there is a status with some of the universities, shop around, you might not think it matters a degree is a degree, but for certain disciplines it does make a difference, check the university rankings for the courses that you are looking into for info.

Hope some of this helps.

The other way to approach this is to find out what options you have in the local area. Get on to the web and make a few phone calls to local Unis and Colleges to find out what they can offer.

You also need to decide how you want to study. Do you want to go back full time on some sort of sponsorship deal with your work, is day release or block release an option with work and local FE establishments, or is it all in your own time at night school?

Your work will probably have some pretty strong views on what courses they will support as well, i'm guessing they would be unlikely to support or accommodate you if wanted to do a course that is deemed irrelevant to your present job role or department.

Unless you're willing to move house or go down the Open Uni route, then the options available could be the biggest influence on your plans.

A BEng at night school, twice a week, takes a very long time to complete. Ditto for any Open Uni stuff.

For what it's worth I went down the day release route, which is a mixed bag, but does allow you to earn a living at the same time and can be completed on the same time line as the full time course.

To get a flavour of the subject, i'd suggest signing up for an HNC in Mechanical Eng somewhere. Doesn't take long to complete, thier will be loads of places offering it as a course, (full time, part time, night school), and it will open a few doors for you in its own right if you decide not to do the Degree. I would avoid Mechatronics though, rightly or wrongly it tends to be viewed as "jack of all trades, master of none". Don't even know if it still exists as a subject...

Just catching up with all your replies. Thanks guys there is some really usefull info there

I am guna sit down with one of the Engineers i work with (when i can pin him down (ooo errr!)) - he didnt take the degree route to start with and has worked up. so guna find out what he did and see if i can do aspects of that. Basically i think i have to decide on whos job i want eventually and design my route around that, maybe