Hey there,

I'm looking for some advice.

I am a fully qualified electrician (2391, 17th Edition, 2360 parts 1+2) currently working as an electrical foreman.

I want to progress into electrical engineering/design. I am looking to build on my existing career and qualifications as, at the age of 30 and with commitments, can't afford to be starting at the beginning again. I don't have a degree but have good GCSE/A Levels and seven years' experience as an electrician.

Would a HNC course in Electrical Engineering be the best thing I could do? Or can anyone recommend another route I could look into, or people I could contact?

Any and all advice would be very much appreciated!!

Thanks
Simon

Edited: 04 April 2010 at 08:55 PM by sippa

If you have commitments then I am assuming you will need to either do evening study or distance learning.

1. I would also look at your local college/university and see if they have anything which you could commit too.....and if so go and have a chat with them.

2. There are distance learning degrees and HNC's available, for example Portsmouth Uni, COLU, Bath Uni, Open Uni, etc. Take a look at the qualifications you will require to attain the career you want, through job adverts, careers advisor, etc., and then look at the distance learning qualifications on offer and speak with their tutors/contacts. If you choose carefully you could for example first do a HNC which is equivalent to the 1st year of a degree, and then progress directly to the 2nd year of a degree.....thus you would get a HNC quite early and then a degree later on. For this option you would need to check with the degree provider that your chosen HNC modules will be acceptable for their 1st year......you may not wish to do this of course but it's possible.

Regards.

Hi Simon,

I completed my HNC in electrical / electronic engineering last year. It was two nights per week at a local college. The group was mainly made up of 30 - 40 something's in very much the same situation as yourself.

It was one of the best experiences of my life to date, a good friendly atmosphere, some hard work done and a nice feeling of achievement at the end. It has also secured me a nice little design job.

I would warn you though that the HNC is a very much academic course. There is a lot of maths, science and other theory.

You will need to work with topics such as partial fractions, calculus (integration and differentiation), trigonometry, etc etc.

If you have not studied these topics since school (or at all), then your local college will offer you a bridging unit to get you up to speed. It's just a short course before the HNC, a lot of people in my group found it of great benefit.

At the moment I am studying for my engineering degree with the Open University (distance learning). It is not half as much fun learning this way and also you can feel cut off and alone. I really preferred the night course route.

You should take a look at the Edexcel website to see what is involved with the HNC:

http://www.edexcel.com/quals/h...10/Pages/default.aspx

You should also pop into your local college and have a chat with the head of engineering. They are generally very helpful!

Good luck.