Degree Advice

[der1]

Hi guys, After some thought I've decided that the career path I want to go down now I'm going to need relevant qualifications etc to do the sort of job I want to do.

I'm 22

I'm looking at going into offshore engineering.

I dont have any Highers (A levels in England)

Should I go to college and Do highers in relevant subjects Eg: maths & physics and then apply to the uni I want to go to ?

Or do an Nc in mechanical engineering at college that will progress to a hnc/hnd in mechanical engineering.

My question is if I did a Nc then hnd/hnc could I progress into the 3rd year of some mechanical engineering courses at uni ? or is this not possible?

Very confused by it all but excited at the same time.


PS, I've decided this will be better than trying to get offshore as a roustabout etc and working my way up, I'd rather study and get into a good job after it.

Cheers

Der

[randlemarcus]

Working on the assumption that you have done enough research to confirm that a degree will pay off and get you where you need to be:
Take the course that means you get paid for studying.

[MR Kirbyz]

You sound like me! i got an apprenticeship instead of doing A levels. It took me 2years to complete the ONC in Mech eng (year 2 and year 3) as you skip year one if you have 5+ GCSE's. The course is pretty easy tbh. I'm now doing the HNC and it is a bit harder when it comes to the maths side of things but if you're decent at maths it should be fine. I enjoy the course because i get paid to do it although this means i do it part time so full time would be quicker.
A degree i would assume is pretty neccesary in Engineering if you want to get your foot in the door with no experience which is why i plan on doing one once my hnc is complete.
Also if you do a Hnc or Hnd you can start uni on the 2nd year but no further iirc

[der1]

MR Kirbyz said:

You sound like me! i got an apprenticeship instead of doing A levels. It took me 2years to complete the ONC in Mech eng (year 2 and year 3) as you skip year one if you have 5+ GCSE's. The course is pretty easy tbh. I'm now doing the HNC and it is a bit harder when it comes to the maths side of things but if you're decent at maths it should be fine. I enjoy the course because i get paid to do it although this means i do it part time so full time would be quicker.
A degree i would assume is pretty neccesary in Engineering if you want to get your foot in the door with no experience which is why i plan on doing one once my hnc is complete.
Also if you do a Hnc or Hnd you can start uni on the 2nd year but no further iirc

I play on doing a nc then the hnd then onto uni, Aberdeen college website says candidates on the hnd mech engineering can progress to year 3 degree ? not 100 percent tho, cheers for the feeback mate

[jamieduff1981]

Do you want to actually work offshore, or work onshore as an Engineer within the offshore industry?

I have a Mech Eng background and currently work in project management for one of the EPC contractors based in Aberdeen.

Given your current circumstances, and assuming that you want to work onshore as a design engineer, then I'd suggest that you just get yourself an unskilled dayjob doing whatever, and sign up for an Access Course at University for an Engineering degree. It's night-school work, with tutors. My wife passed the access course but we learned we were going to have a baby prior to her starting the actual degree. The access course was quite good and is assured to get you onto the degree course within the same uni.

I'd strongly recommend that you do the full 4 or 5 year Undergraduate course. Engineering is not like a lot of the naff degree courses. It's intensive and your weekly timetable WILL be full. There's a hell of a lot to learn and by not having the 5th and 6th year school foundation you're going to be playing catchup to a certain extent anyway. Do yourself a massive favour and start in 1st Year. You'll need the time to get to grips with what's going on and even just to get familiar with the mathematics. You'll do yourself no favours at all trying to enter the course later irrespective where you came from. Even going from an HNC/D into Uni is a different way of working and unless you're a real superstar you'll struggle to keep up.

In short then - access course followed by the full degree course is my recommendation. That, and apply to the industry for summer placements. The placement students get paid proper money during the summer but far more importantly, they get themselves known within the company and get first dibs on a staff position on the graduate training schemes after uni - particularly those who come back a couple of years running.

[der1]

jamieduff1981 said:

Do you want to actually work offshore, or work onshore as an Engineer within the offshore industry?

I have a Mech Eng background and currently work in project management for one of the EPC contractors based in Aberdeen.

Given your current circumstances, and assuming that you want to work onshore as a design engineer, then I'd suggest that you just get yourself an unskilled dayjob doing whatever, and sign up for an Access Course at University for an Engineering degree. It's night-school work, with tutors. My wife passed the access course but we learned we were going to have a baby prior to her starting the actual degree. The access course was quite good and is assured to get you onto the degree course within the same uni.

I'd strongly recommend that you do the full 4 or 5 year Undergraduate course. Engineering is not like a lot of the naff degree courses. It's intensive and your weekly timetable WILL be full. There's a hell of a lot to learn and by not having the 5th and 6th year school foundation you're going to be playing catchup to a certain extent anyway. Do yourself a massive favour and start in 1st Year. You'll need the time to get to grips with what's going on and even just to get familiar with the mathematics. You'll do yourself no favours at all trying to enter the course later irrespective where you came from. Even going from an HNC/D into Uni is a different way of working and unless you're a real superstar you'll struggle to keep up.

In short then - access course followed by the full degree course is my recommendation. That, and apply to the industry for summer placements. The placement students get paid proper money during the summer but far more importantly, they get themselves known within the company and get first dibs on a staff position on the graduate training schemes after uni - particularly those who come back a couple of years running.

Thanks for the feedback, I'm ideally looking at doing something offshore but if it was onshore that wouldnt matter however this is still far away at the moment obviously.

The access course sounds intresting? Do you know if any of the uni's in Aberdeen run this course ?

I like the sound of going down that route


Cheers


Dere

[jamieduff1981]

Yep, the University of Aberdeen certainly does - that's the one my wife did. I'll personally vouch for their undergrad course too - better still, the oil companies all know it too and know what they're getting. I'm sure RGU will have something similar. I started a distance learning MSc with RGU though and I wasn't impressed. There's good money onshore in this industry and if/when you do want a family it's a far better lifestyle than working offshore (IMO). That's for later though, and your summer placements will be onshore anyway. The access course lasts a year IIRC?

[der1]

jamieduff1981 said:

Yep, the University of Aberdeen certainly does - that's the one my wife did. I'll personally vouch for their undergrad course too - better still, the oil companies all know it too and know what they're getting. I'm sure RGU will have something similar. I started a distance learning MSc with RGU though and I wasn't impressed. There's good money onshore in this industry and if/when you do want a family it's a far better lifestyle than working offshore (IMO). That's for later though, and your summer placements will be onshore anyway. The access course lasts a year IIRC?

I couldnt find the course on there website is it an access to engineering or is it a diffrent course ?

Cheers

[KingNothing]

Someone I currently work with is off soon to work offshore, he hasn't got a degree, just an HNC and work experience, but for £60-70k for working half the year doesn't sound too bad, it's manual work though, not design work, so will be tougher. I mean you could probabley earn that sitting behind a desk onshore designing stuff using a degree (after some time though), just depends what you're after.

Are there no apprenticeships recruiting nearby? st pay for someone your age, but they'll usually pay for your ONC/HNC/HND, mine did for two HNC's. And my subsequent job are paying for my degree.

[Stewart-83]

What is it that you want to do offshore exactly?

[der1]

Stewart-83 said:

What is it that you want to do offshore exactly?

Subsea Engineer ? I think..

[der1]

KingNothing said:

Someone I currently work with is off soon to work offshore, he hasn't got a degree, just an HNC and work experience, but for £60-70k for working half the year doesn't sound too bad, it's manual work though, not design work, so will be tougher. I mean you could probabley earn that sitting behind a desk onshore designing stuff using a degree (after some time though), just depends what you're after.

Are there no apprenticeships recruiting nearby? st pay for someone your age, but they'll usually pay for your ONC/HNC/HND, mine did for two HNC's. And my subsequent job are paying for my degree.

I want to be doing stuff with my hands preferably not sitting behind a desk but I'm pretty sure I will be needing a degree though so as I dont get stuck at a level wheres theres no progression route if you get me ?

cheers

[jamieduff1981]

Yowon't need a degree for manual work. Design engineers will get paid roughly twice what the offshore guys get over a year.

[der1]

jamieduff1981 said:

Yowon't need a degree for manual work. Design engineers will get paid roughly twice what the offshore guys get over a year.

Well obviously that is more attractive

what sort of roles is there offshore with someone with say a hnd in mech engineering? and what kind of money would the be looking at roughly... btw I'm not one of these dreamers that posts on here about work offshore! I just want to better myself and working offshore in oil and gas has always fascinated me


Cheers

Der

[Stewart-83]

Loads of jobs.....

To be honest, if you are willing to graft then you don't always need any qualifications. It's about who you apply to.

What have you got at the moment qualification and experience wise?


An HND in Mechanical Engineering would open up *most* doors. If you want to work in the office within two years then a degree would be good, if the plan is 5-10 years or never then an HND is all you'd need.

[der1]

Stewart-83 said:

Loads of jobs.....

To be honest, if you are willing to graft then you don't always need any qualifications. It's about who you apply to.

What have you got at the moment qualification and experience wise?


An HND in Mechanical Engineering would open up *most* doors. If you want to work in the office within two years then a degree would be good, if the plan is 5-10 years or never then an HND is all you'd need.

I am more than willing to graft no question of that,


I've not got that much experience and only standard grades no highers etc

I'm just in 2 minds whether to do :
(1) an access course leading to a degree, time wise we are talking 5-6 years to complete that
(2)Do a Hnd and be working after what 3 years?

Can anyone tell me what kind of role would be available with a Hnd in mech engineering then?

Right now the Hnd sounds more appealing as I could be working after 3 years but would the degree be worth the wait?

Cheers

[KingNothing]

If I was in your shoes, I would personally go down the HNC/D route, then get some offshore courses done like a BOSIET and MIST to show that you want to work offshore. I'd go down the engineering apprenticeship route if you can, as then you're getting paid for training/experience, and they usually include an HNC as well. Looking at jobsites at the minute, oil and gas etc. offshore jobs asking for a degree are usually asking for years of experience as well, so even with a degree under your belt, it's not going to be a stroll in the park to waltz into a megabucks job, looking at ones asking for HND etc. they'll ideally want experience as well, but might be easier to get into, those jobs will be decentish money, so gives you a few years experience, if you want to continue that job, continue it, if you want a degree to try and advance, then you should have a decent chunk of money saved up from working offshore to either allow you to do an OU course or something, or to quit work for a while and do it full time.

[der1]

KingNothing said:

If I was in your shoes, I would personally go down the HNC/D route, then get some offshore courses done like a BOSIET and MIST to show that you want to work offshore. I'd go down the engineering apprenticeship route if you can, as then you're getting paid for training/experience, and they usually include an HNC as well. Looking at jobsites at the minute, oil and gas etc. offshore jobs asking for a degree are usually asking for years of experience as well, so even with a degree under your belt, it's not going to be a stroll in the park to waltz into a megabucks job, looking at ones asking for HND etc. they'll ideally want experience as well, but might be easier to get into, those jobs will be decentish money, so gives you a few years experience, if you want to continue that job, continue it, if you want a degree to try and advance, then you should have a decent chunk of money saved up from working offshore to either allow you to do an OU course or something, or to quit work for a while and do it full time.

Thanks for the advice will add that into my list of pros and cons

[jamieduff1981]

Operations and specialist vendors have their own pay scales, but most of the offshore construction trades will be paid £300~400 a day, but you won't be working more than half the year normally.

Onshore, a typical graduate starting salary will be circa £30,000pa with 6 weeks leave a year, pension etc etc with 6 monthly pay reviews until you've completed the graduate training schemes. After that, you can expect something of the order of £60,000 to £70,000 per year staff for medium/senior engineering grades, or twice that if you work freelance without the paid annual leave, sick pay or other employee protection (i.e. take the employment risk yourself and you'll be paid twice as much)

Alternatively, working onshore with an HND could let you be a Designer (draughtsman) working in 2D CAD or more commonly these days in 3D modelling software. They get paid about 2/3 that of the equivalent seniority of Engineers.

Have a think on it, and consider where you see your life going etc. Onshore and offshore is very different and some people are entirely unsuited to one or the other. Some like going home every night, others like having 2 weeks off every month. Offshore is probably more exciting for a relatively young person like yourself, certainly more exposed to physical risk (inherently, because you're there, not because we don't put a huge emphasis on safety and spend bucket loads of money on doing things safer) and definately less well paid once you've settled in. You will probably enjoy the income quicker initially offshore though, but after a few years onshore your income will surpass an offshore worker's then just keep going for a while.

[der1]

jamieduff1981 said:

Operations and specialist vendors have their own pay scales, but most of the offshore construction trades will be paid £300~400 a day, but you won't be working more than half the year normally.

Onshore, a typical graduate starting salary will be circa £30,000pa with 6 weeks leave a year, pension etc etc with 6 monthly pay reviews until you've completed the graduate training schemes. After that, you can expect something of the order of £60,000 to £70,000 per year staff for medium/senior engineering grades, or twice that if you work freelance without the paid annual leave, sick pay or other employee protection (i.e. take the employment risk yourself and you'll be paid twice as much)

Alternatively, working onshore with an HND could let you be a Designer (draughtsman) working in 2D CAD or more commonly these days in 3D modelling software. They get paid about 2/3 that of the equivalent seniority of Engineers.

Have a think on it, and consider where you see your life going etc. Onshore and offshore is very different and some people are entirely unsuited to one or the other. Some like going home every night, others like having 2 weeks off every month. Offshore is probably more exciting for a relatively young person like yourself, certainly more exposed to physical risk (inherently, because you're there, not because we don't put a huge emphasis on safety and spend bucket loads of money on doing things safer) and definately less well paid once you've settled in. You will probably enjoy the income quicker initially offshore though, but after a few years onshore your income will surpass an offshore worker's then just keep going for a while.

Thanks for the input mate, will have a think again cheers