HNC Building Services Engineering / Elec & Elec

[Spottydogs]

Hi all.

I have been trying to do some reading up on my options for possibly doing a HNC next year. I had originally looked at doing a HNC in Electrical & Electronic Engineering as it seemed the most logical step forwards from my current qualifications as follows

Apprenticeship NVQ L3
2391 Approved Electrician
2396

However from what I have read so far, that HNC is very heavy going in terms of the maths. Now my maths is ok and I got through the 2396 without too much difficulty however I'm not convinced it's A-Level standard. I had noticed that you can do a year bridging course for Engineering maths but if I'm honest I think I'd find it pretty boring and hard work and possibly not that useful for my intended career goals.

So the other suggestions I'd seen was Building Services Engineering. I'd seen a HNC offering the following modules

Unit 1: Individual Project (Pearson-set)
Unit 2: Construction Technology
Unit 3: Science & Materials
Unit 4: Construction Practice & Management
Specialist - mandatory
Unit 8: Mathematics for Construction
Unit 9: Principles of Heating Services Design & Installation
Unit 10: Principles of Ventilation and Air Conditioning Design & Installation
Unit 14: Building Information Modelling

Has anyone done this course or similar from a similar background and how much existing knowledge would you likely need on the above? I'm just concerned about biting off more than I can chew if you're expected to have previous experience of the above.

My electrical background is mostly commercial although I've recently changed jobs into a maintenance environment with a University. Ideally I'd like to gain some more qualifications in the next 5 years or so to enable to eventually move off the tools into an office based role.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

 

[Pete999]

Hi all.

I have been trying to do some reading up on my options for possibly doing a HNC next year. I had originally looked at doing a HNC in Electrical & Electronic Engineering as it seemed the most logical step forwards from my current qualifications as follows

Apprenticeship NVQ L3
2391 Approved Electrician
2396

However from what I have read so far, that HNC is very heavy going in terms of the maths. Now my maths is ok and I got through the 2396 without too much difficulty however I'm not convinced it's A-Level standard. I had noticed that you can do a year bridging course for Engineering maths but if I'm honest I think I'd find it pretty boring and hard work and possibly not that useful for my intended career goals.

So the other suggestions I'd seen was Building Services Engineering. I'd seen a HNC offering the following modules

Unit 1: Individual Project (Pearson-set)
Unit 2: Construction Technology
Unit 3: Science & Materials
Unit 4: Construction Practice & Management
Specialist - mandatory
Unit 8: Mathematics for Construction
Unit 9: Principles of Heating Services Design & Installation
Unit 10: Principles of Ventilation and Air Conditioning Design & Installation
Unit 14: Building Information Modelling

Has anyone done this course or similar from a similar background and how much existing knowledge would you likely need on the above? I'm just concerned about biting off more than I can chew if you're expected to have previous experience of the above.

My electrical background is mostly commercial although I've recently changed jobs into a maintenance environment with a University. Ideally I'd like to gain some more qualifications in the next 5 years or so to enable to eventually move off the tools into an office based role.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

I took the ONC course in BSs that was hard going, believe it or not, quite what the HNC will involve was beyond me, my job at the time took me overseas quite a lot, I missed lots of lectures and had to give up, my job came first, the ONC required lots of out of Class studies, project to do at home, too much for me at the age I was, to cope with, especially in a class full of people 20 years younger than me, who learnt at a faster rate, given double the time I'm sure I could have dealt with it better, still never mind it's all in the past now. Good luck though. Hope you make it to the desk job, although beware as you get older you may wish you were back on the tools.

 

[Shoei]

Hi all.

I have been trying to do some reading up on my options for possibly doing a HNC next year. I had originally looked at doing a HNC in Electrical & Electronic Engineering....
However from what I have read so far, that HNC is very heavy going in terms of the maths.

HNC maths is a bit of a chore but it's not crazy hard, don't let it stop you going that route if it's otherwise what you want to do. In reality you can forget 90% of it after qualifying, but it's useful to understand the concepts.

There's a pdf here that a course provider has put up to help people check if their maths is up to HNC electrical. Take a look and see what you think. If you want a steer on anything, check back and we can all be confused together.

 

[Pete999]

HNC maths is a bit of a chore but it's not crazy hard, don't let it stop you going that route if it's otherwise what you want to do. In reality you can forget 90% of it after qualifying, but it's useful to understand the concepts.

There's a pdf here that a course provider has put up to help people check if their maths is up to HNC electrical. Take a look and see what you think. If you want a steer on anything, check back and we can all be confused together.

Gives me a headache just looking at that PDF

 

[Pete999]

Gives me a headache just looking at that PDF

J notation did my head in as well.

 

[Spottydogs]

Thanks for all the replies so far.

I was feeling a bit more confident until about page 8! Admittedly I was trying to take it in whilst off work with the little un and frozen playing in the background! Thank you for the link, it would seem that learning and practising the basic rules makes some sense of the gobbly de gook. Is there any guide books you might suggest looking at before I sign my life away to an impossible course?

 

[Shoei]

The Frozen soundtrack doesn't help anyone think, it's probably meant to do the opposite. The book question has been discussed on the forum so it would be worth checking that out.

Good books for mathematics for HNC electrical engineering? - https://www.electriciansforums.co.uk/threads/good-books-for-mathematics-for-hnc-electrical-engineering.94410/

It would be worth getting some guidance from the place you're thinking of doing the course, looking at engineering maths books in isolation will probably be a bit daunting, I'd want to have a good idea of what's needed for the course and just focus on that.

 

[The_apprentice2.0]

Hi all.

I have been trying to do some reading up on my options for possibly doing a HNC next year. I had originally looked at doing a HNC in Electrical & Electronic Engineering as it seemed the most logical step forwards from my current qualifications as follows

Apprenticeship NVQ L3
2391 Approved Electrician
2396

However from what I have read so far, that HNC is very heavy going in terms of the maths. Now my maths is ok and I got through the 2396 without too much difficulty however I'm not convinced it's A-Level standard. I had noticed that you can do a year bridging course for Engineering maths but if I'm honest I think I'd find it pretty boring and hard work and possibly not that useful for my intended career goals.

So the other suggestions I'd seen was Building Services Engineering. I'd seen a HNC offering the following modules

Unit 1: Individual Project (Pearson-set)
Unit 2: Construction Technology
Unit 3: Science & Materials
Unit 4: Construction Practice & Management
Specialist - mandatory
Unit 8: Mathematics for Construction
Unit 9: Principles of Heating Services Design & Installation
Unit 10: Principles of Ventilation and Air Conditioning Design & Installation
Unit 14: Building Information Modelling

Has anyone done this course or similar from a similar background and how much existing knowledge would you likely need on the above? I'm just concerned about biting off more than I can chew if you're expected to have previous experience of the above.

My electrical background is mostly commercial although I've recently changed jobs into a maintenance environment with a University. Ideally I'd like to gain some more qualifications in the next 5 years or so to enable to eventually move off the tools into an office based role.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

I completed my Elec / Elec HNC in 2014, it was day release one day a week and the lot was assignment based except several tests in maths which could be refereed up to 3 times ... not sure if it has changed since ..... I am not the best at maths but didn't find it to complex (I did make use of one of them referrals tho ) .... As far as background knowledge goes, it obviously helps to have some ..... we'd done the level 2 PEO and level 3 ONC before hand but the tutors I had seem to take us through as if we'd never studied electrics before (which is handy when the last time u seen a resistor was the previous year on a bread board)

As long as your willing cant see it being a problem, although I would suggest going with one you are more interested in as it can be a bit of a slog

 

[Brian Taylor]

Did an HND in Electrical engineering a few years ago and must admit it wasn't worth the effort....never got a job in the strength of it...as with all these qualifications they are what you do on the way to other things....ended up with a degree in Law but never got job with that either.