Domestic to Industrial advice??

[Deathproof21]

Hi, i have recently qualified as an electrician after a four year apprenticeship, my contract ran out with my company and they didnt have funding to take me on full qualified.
I have managed to get a job since leaving, my new job is industrial based though and i am just wondering if anybody has any advice on possible courses to take down the electrical engineering route??

The company that have taken me on understand fully that i have come from a domestic electrical approach and are willing to give me time to get up to pace.
Has anyone been in any kind of similar situation, and what types of courses or tuition would you recommend?

Any advice would be great thanks

 

[montybaber]

When you say industrial do you mean installation?

 

[Deathproof21]

fault finding on machines and motors mainly, but also installation work when neccesary. looking to further myself educationally in this area as best i can.

 

[montybaber]

This is my line of work

Basically if you want to stay 100% electrically biased then a HNC in electrical and electronic engineering is for you, if like me you prefer a more rounded set of qualifications then possibly a HNC is operations engineering (mechatronics).

Cant vouch for the first but the HNC i did (mex) covered electrical and mechanical science, further mechatronics (sensors, actuators, motors, control), robot technology (prgramming robots as well as mechanical and electrical construction), electronics, plant and process principles (thermodynamics etc) engineering design (solidworks 3d modelling etc), PLC's (programming and theory behind systems networking scada etc)

Along with my electrical quals this seems to be quite inviting to employers within industrial maintenance and engineering positions working with control and automation etc, proves your abilities to work on a range of systems (automation etc) with a thorough electrical knowledge

any more info give me a shout

 

[Deathproof21]

The mechatroncs hnc sounds more towards how i would go, the company i am with want me to be able to eventually work with basically everything u said from sensors etc, motors and PLC equipment and also want me to be mechanically capable as well.
How did you go about getting on a course? did you take it part time while working or full time at uni?
Also are there certain qualifications i would need, i have full electrical NVQs and A-levels from before i took an apprenticeship up.

Thanks for your advice

 

[montybaber]

I did my HNC at Bridgwater college one day a week for two years, there are a few colleges unis that offer this course but most wont offer the PLC or robotics units due to finding teaching staff capable of teaching the units, at Bridgwater they offer these units (actually robotics is not a normal option for mex but we were given the option of that unit or electrical power)

With A levels and electrical quals you should be able to enrol, they prefer you to have carried out an ONC beforehand as a lot of subjects are a progression ffom the ONC but anyone with some experience and common sense can keep up.

You may find that a few colleges will ask you to do bridging modules in maths and possibly science, if you are in any way unsure of your abilities in maths then I recommend you do, it is by far the toughest unit and was shockingly hard at the beginning for me but take some comfort in the fact that I passed with very little maths experience (hopefully one of your A levels is maths lol)

The mechatronics course is basically tailor made for your requirements, other units include hydraulics and pnumatics and other more mechanical disciplines.

The course is ten units which you are assessed by assignments and practical sessions at college, the assignments are time consuming and it takes a lot of hard work to get it done whilst working full time, as well as the 8 or 9 hours at college a week I think I must have spent on average 8-12 hours a week doing homework and assignment work at home.

Good luck let me know how you get on, just recieved my certs this week and although im proud of them (I know you guys with degrees will scoff!) they are a bit of an anticlimax after the work I put in for two yrs (basically life on hold) hopefully it will be worth it when job hunting in the future