hi all
just wondereing if anyone went down this route after school 6th form and what the expierence was like? where did you do it? what area of engineering?
and any other info
thanks alex
Didnt go down the apprenticeship route but I instead took a year out before uni and got a job with rolls royce through year in industry
http://www.yini.org.uk/http://www.yini.org.uk/
worse thing i ever did was stay at 6 form and not get an apprenticeship :sad:
What type of engineering are you intrested in getting into?
Im in my final year of doing one and its rubbish. Your going to find it hard to find one at the moment aswell with so many engineering companys making employees re-dundant at the momment. The engineering industry isnt a very nice place to work at the moment. I went to a college with alot of aprentices from large companys suchs as GKN drive line, goodrich etc. most of the companys are making alot of workers redundant at the moment. As an aprentice your pretty much immune to redundancys, but it doesnt garantee you a job when your out of your time.
Do urself a favour, stay at school, go to uni..by the time your finished the economy might of settled down and you will be better qualified.
I regret not going to uni even though i had the qualifications to get in.
before you start an uni course or anything like that look at what qualifactions you need, if any, what you need for the job you want to get after, there were a few people what came into the company i used to work for before i started one myself, they had been to uni and got the grades but when it came to me showing them the machines we wanted them to run they didnt have a clue how to use them., All companys will look at experiance over grades in engineering, because if you havent run the machines before why should they employ you.
To me thats what seems to be the main issue between taking the uni or college route compared with an apprenticeship. A lot of employers, as Kenny said, will choose someone with practical experience over someone with the written qualifications from an instituion and I can understand why.
After three years of uni, the most practical work Ive had related to the curriculum was to build a small hinge in first year (the biggest piece of apparatus we used was a pillar drill - the rest was all school-level technical work) and to dismantle and rebuild a small motorcycle engine in 2nd year. That wont help us much when it comes to being asked to operate lathes/mills etc
We have a mechanics club in uni but it hasnt really taken off. The most we can use unsupervised is the pillar drill again, even for the lathe we have to ask a technician to do it (all due to Health and Safety restrictions within the department).
Based on what Ive learned from the past couple of years at uni: if you decide to go down the uni path, make sure you work hard to pass your exams first time round so you can keep your summers free from resit exams. Then you can use the holidays to do internships and placements at engineering companies and (depending on where you get an internship) you can gain valuable experience using machines. You might not have a bit of paper that says youre qualified to operate that machine but the useful thing is that you can.
Fortunately youre also in a hobby that requires machine use from time to time and, even if you dont have your own machines, you will probably be able to ask around for some practice time and instruction on using machines. Every bit of experience you get will stand you in good stead further down the line.
From what I have seen from companies generally university graduates are expected to work excel and not much more. Just work it in new and interesting ways.
I am getting real sick of my uni course and especially my year abroad
*RANT WARNING!*
One of the lecturers I have today told the entire class 7 weeks in well after we can swap classes that none of should have taken it as none of us have the relavent previous experience for the class. He cant speak english much fullstop and wont answer perfectly sensible questions about the work. The notes are a joke and all the tasks we are given have to perfect or else we get them back to correct them. I am now sitting with 6 seperate reports including graphs and technical drawings to do for this class as well as more on the horizon. O and if I dont get the credits for this class i will have to do the equivalent of a full years work in a semester next semester.
Ok sorry to rant and go off tangent but it has been one of those days.....
*pats Gary on the back
There there....there there.
Well I am not an engineer but I am a uni graduate and my partner works in recruitment usually dealing with laborers, welders and certain engineers.
Maybe ten years ago things were differnt but nowadays University degrees are not essential.
Experience by far is the most important thing for emplyment and not education.
However on that argument, an 18 year old fresh from school is going to have a harder time finding a job then a graduate.
I would suggest taking a gap year and looking for work when you leave school. This year working will help you find employment at the end of your degree as well as get you looking forward to dossing about for 3 years at uni.
From the engineers I have spoken to involved in this sport have said that robotic combat has really helped them get the job. This tells your employers that you do this thing for a hobby.
Any hows take care. Feel your pain gary. Had a lecturer specialize in CGI coding and he gave me such grief. When you could make out what he was saying it was mostly rubbish any way.
Difference in opinion it seems..
Quote Maybe ten years ago things were different but nowadays University degrees are not essential.
errr if anything i have been told and also seeing the complete opposite!
In my IT/Business Uni Course, we had alot of mature students in our class (say lots say about 6 out of our group of 30) because companies are sending them back to Uni to get the Qualification.
I agree experience is slightly more than a qualification (sometimes), but at the end of the day you need the paper work... These people were being told, go and complete the Uni course or we need to drop you, as we have all these new students with the paper work and you dont. So another way of looking at it maybe?
If anything, was told paper work is more important than experience when it comes to professional jobs. Specially in the IT/Business/Teaching/Nursing industry now. But experience is just as important that€™s why most courses put you on placements or give you projects with a real client etc for real life experience.
My advice as it was given to me and glad i took it, go to Uni as soon as you can while your in the learning motivation mood. I was told by the careers people something like 65% of students who take a gap year and intended to go back to uni, didn€™t. I€™m glad i went right to Uni, glad i did it for the experience it self, and glad i did it now rather than taking a gap year. But that€™s just me.
And i feel for you also Gary, glad it wasnt me... we had a module in Information Process Managment (annoying module to say the least) and they give us some guy from Iran who speaks English like he just arrived in the county for the first time (even though he lived here for 25 years) and goes off on tangents alot and speaks rubbish and gave us slides to read but were no use really. And then had a go when we only got Bs. And it was a module you HAD to complete, or you re did it again. 40% class failed and had to have him again, woop woop. LOL.
Go to Uni, get a job/experience over summer holidays, do a course with placement if its in engineering. Good Luck! Youll love it!
Mr Stu
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