Morning all

I appreciate this is in the wrong forum, but wanted to get an opinion from the regular posters. Speaking with some mechanical engineers and some of you's on here, I realise that I'm a little electrical bias, so I am looking at doing a building services hnc/d, so I can gain an understanding of different HVAC applications amongst other services

Has anyone on here completed one of these and how did they find it. I didn't want to start then get bored with it, as I want to enjoy it. Giving the current economy, I will probably undertake this on distance learning, so can anyone recommend a training provider?. I see some offer this under different examiners i.e. SQA, BTEC, so which is more recognised

I would appreciate any feedback

Regards

Jobbo

I did a BTEC HNC (2 years part time) followed by a HND (1 year part time) a number of years back - 16 modules in total if I recall correctly - personally speaking I found the HVAC modules more interesting than the electrical ones (having come from an electricians background) - particularly the air conditioning module - thermodynamic theory was always going to be a good introductory module as well.

In my opinion, Building Services is the way to go if you are looking at a "design" career.

Overall, it was a bit of work but I enjoyed it - and it paved the way for undergraduate study quite well.

I guess it depends on who you pick to deliver it - I've not seen too many courses offered distance learning to be honest , but there must be a few out there.

Regards

OMS

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Failure is always an option

Building services engineering is a foundation degree, they are offered by universities in partnership with higher education colleges and further education colleges. The study methods can be very flexible, which means that they are available to people already in work, those wishing to embark on a career change and to those who have recently completed level 3 qualifications (eg A levels, Advanced Apprenticeships or NVQ3).

They are generally 2 years full time or around 4 years part time and you will need to go the UCAS route, I would like to point out that the full time course is often 3 days a week so you can carry on working and will be still elliglble for student finance.

To get further details on this course you need to contact UCAS or colleges and universities around your area for further details.

Yes it is worth it for the future.

p.s. Foundation degree graduates have a number of options, employment may be your major focus after gaining your foundation degree. Many graduates choose to combine employment with further study and you will have the opportunity to progress to a full honours degree with around 12 months of further study (the time taken depends on how you choose to study).

regards

-------------------------
"Take nothing but a picture,
leave nothing but footprints!"
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"Oh! The drama of it all."
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"You can throw all the philosophy you like at the problem, but at the end of the day it's just basic electrical theory!"
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Edited: 07 August 2012 at 09:56 AM by rocknroll

Thanks guys

I have looked at various training providers in the past and had previously put my name down (part time evenings), but due to lack of numbers, they haven't run the course. I know that COLU run hnd's via distance learning, but not in building services, just electrical/electronics. I just spoke to a nice chap from logis-tech associates who offer a SQA hnc/d in building services via distance learning. Looking at their website, I'm a little unsure how this matches the uk equivalent BTEC? can credits be transferred if I wanted to progress, say onto a B.Eng etc

Regards

Jobbo

The 'Credit Accumulation and Transfer Scheme' (CATS) is a complicated procedure and you need to seek advice in this area, colleges and universities will have a UCAS representative on site and I would suggest you speak to them about this.

regards

-------------------------
"Take nothing but a picture,
leave nothing but footprints!"
-------------------------
"Oh! The drama of it all."
-------------------------
"You can throw all the philosophy you like at the problem, but at the end of the day it's just basic electrical theory!"
-------------------------

I recommend and well worth doing HNC building services. 2year part time course which goes towards a foundation degree

There is a awful lot of math's and you need to be up to speed quadratic, liner equations etc and to be truthful being out of education for some time I struggled
Typical day I did the electrical bias
8am math's 10.30 design. 12.00 lunch 1300 lighting design/controls/electrical .15.30 Building Science (math's)18.00 Finish

The class splits Mechanical/Electrical at lunch and joins again for science. While I took the electrical bias and the course covers mechanical services I wish now I had taken the mechanical route, one to think of what you want to do with the qualification

Assignments approximately 3every 6weeks and if your working that means most nights and most weekends for two years, playing catch up Christmas and summer break
It's tough but well worth doing and in today's job market every little helps

Cost wise if you are working I think was about £800 per year which is very good value
Course books can be purchased second hand on Amazon I got a £50 something maths book for £3

Good luck buddy and as they say knowledge is power its coming up to enrolment time get yourself down to your local participating college find out what the course is about and if it's for you
The longest journey started with the smallest step

MrP

I am also looking at doing the building services HNC, did my ONC about 6 years ago but feel I need the HNC to reinforce my future career. My option is day release for 2 years, but as I am self employed I need to work out if I can survive on a 4 day week.

Oh my second rant of the night! Jobbo, you are brilliant, you are gorgeous, you have a life and people to give it to. You have a thriving career and your existing knowledge knocks spots off every last one of us.

Put your feet up, go kick a ball about in the park and build a barbeque in the garden. You do not need any more badges to sew onto your uniform because you can do this already or get someone to design a few windows and drains for you. ( GN9...I'll tell you about it some time).

You are already streets ahead of the rest and I bet you 50p that you will not get to your rocking chair saying 'I wish I had studied more'. What you will be saying is 'I wish I had taken more time off'. You don't need any more qualifications mister.

Zs

I'm suprised at that Zs - not like you to discourage anyone

I think I would say that there is a significant difference between wanting the badge and wanting the knowledge - the former is just a semi transparent tool to use as a weapon over those less fortunate in opportunity than you are - the latter however is just about a quiet sense of self achievement (or probably more accurately self actualisation ) - it can come from learning a new language, a musical instrument or an emerging understanding of statics and dynamics

Of course there is a cost - that's true of everything - but if it satisfies a desire to know just what that AC unit does when you put a power supply to it - then I guess some will say it's a cost worth paying.

Regards

OMS

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Failure is always an option

Oh, I see OMS, I didn't put that well. The lust for learning bit is right on track but you do not have to pass an exam to show that you have learned something. Little post it notes of relevant information get used far more in Zs towers than formal paperwork.

Ok, so I have study fatigue and it's been a bit of a year so far for the old brain so I may be biased toward the wonky barbeque in the back garden and resting the grey cells in favour of laughing all day.

I'm just a bit concerned that mixing with very bright people could make a person think that they need some more badges in order to keep up or ahead. Having met jobbo once I wanted to endorse that he's miles ahead already and drains aren't the be all and end all

'Shhhh, Daddy's trying to study, put those toys away children.....etc.'

Chuck me another brick, I'm building something.

Zs

OK - fair points, although just on a few occassions, you perhaps need that little bit of paper just to show you have learned something - first impressions, books and covers and all that jazz - it's sadly the way of the world.



Maybe - all part of the challenges - no one said it would be easy



Well, buy a level if you don't want a wonky BBQ - it'll annoy you in the end


@Jobbo - track down a copy of "Building Services Engineering" and "Air Conditioning: A Practical Introduction " both by David Chadderton - take a read through, they are classic HNC texts - see how you get on

Best regards

OMS

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Failure is always an option

I cant do mathematics to save myself, would love to study more, but the mathematics put me right off
Got a tutor, it sunk in for a while, but couldnt do it in exam conditions.

Need some courses that have less mathematics

Building Services Engineering - D Chadderton

Excellent book

Building Services Engineering - D Chadderton

Excellent book

I used to be hopeless at maths at school. Looking back it stemmed from from an incident when I changed schools at around the age of 6 when I was told by the teacher that I couldn't even count to twenty. In fact I could count perfectly (well into thousands if needs be) - but in Welsh rather than English. I knew the English digits of course, it was just putting them together into words - there's no equivalent of "teens" in Welsh, so I just translated the Welsh into English and said one-ten-three instead of thirteen and so on. But the damage was done. I "couldn't do maths" so I didn't bother trying, so pretty soon I really couldn't (at least not to an acceptable standard).

But I was lucky - at "O" level (yes, I know that dates me) - I had one Chemistry teacher that took the time (about 10 mins) to step me through long division, one step at a time, explaining what he was doing and why. That 10 mins knocked a tiny hole in my armour of ignorance - to let in a tiny ray of light - perhaps I could do maths after all. After that an excellent maths teacher started to fill in all the gaps.

I'm not brilliant at maths even now, but I did manage to get through O-level, A-level and even scrape through a couple of university modules in maths.

For me (probably just because of the way my mind works) the key was to understand why you're doing something, why it works and so on, rather than just following a procedure parrot-fashion. For me the answer was never just to have one source of information - get things from different directions, different teachers, different course, completely different subjects. It's all part of the same universe and it all fits together, but no-one has the whole truth.

- Andy.

Now that's about the best bit of advice I've heard in a very long time - like Andy, I really struggled with maths - I could often often see a solution but I didn't have the tools to get there. Of all people, it was my German teacher who took the time and trouble to explain a few things - and it was like opening the curtains on a sunny morning - bloody brilliant.

Maths is just another language - all you need to understand is a few of the words and how they fit together and your off - from there, keep practising - when I was doing my BTEC maths module, I used to dictate stuff to a walkman (now that does date me) and then play it whilst driving around etc - worked for me.

Regards

OMS

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Failure is always an option

What's a walkman?:-)

LoL - try here for a history lesson - believe it or not, there was life before the iphone/pod/pad -

You could tape tracks from the John Peel show whilst you should have been studying for your "O" levels onto chrome C60 cassettes and have your own garage mix tapes to rock about with - a bit like iCloud only more user interactive !! -

Amazingly, you could also swap tapes with your mates - but you needed to actually meet and talk to them - good eh -

Regards

OMS

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Failure is always an option

The concepts of Maths took more effort for me, but I did at least make the effort. It's the basics that must be mastered such as the order of multiplication/division and addition/substraction, quadratic equations, simultaneous equations and algebra. I dropped Maths in the final year of an HND Power, for System Protection.

When I was doing the O.N.D., one guy that I was friendly with wanted to be a helicopter pilot, he needed a minimum of an O.N.D. at that time for entrance, he was a whizzkid at maths, but hopeless at technical drawing on the board, whereas that was easy for me. He passed some questions to me during the Maths exam, we both passed easily. During the technical drawing exam, in a class of around 30 in number, with rows of drawing boards, he was next to me. When I saw that he was floundering; I finished my drawing and we just swapped boards and I finished his drawing! The only time I cheated in an exam, but he didn't need to draw helicopters; and he got his wish.

Regards

Thanks for all the feed back guys and for Zs's kind comments

I've taken them all onboard and I've ordered myself a hnc/d building services information pack from a training provider, so I can have a detailed look at what's involved. I've also on the advice from PeteTLM ordered an information pack for a BTEC advanced certificate in heating and air-conditioning, as this may give me a foundation (level 3) for some of the hnc/d units, so may decide to undertake this first as the 18 month course can be completed in 6 months via distance learning and I have the benefit of seeing what's involved

I'll keep you updated, thanks again

Jobbo