Complete lack of Electronics courses (UK)

Hi everyone,

I've been doing some digging around to try and find a decent electronics course that I can begin studying for this coming September. I already have quite a long list of electronics related qualifications behind me but for academic and career reasons I would like to extend them further so that hopefully I can obtain a degree. I already have most of the skills that the degree would give me, but the actual qualification is necessary to open the right doors for me in the first place.

I've been looking mainly at distance learning courses because I already work full-time and so I'm going to have to juggle work and study around quite a bit. Unfortunately there is very VERY little on offer with regard to electronics for distance learning! In a way I can understand why because from a practical point of view, how would you manage to complete practical assignments without the necessary equipment at home? But from a purely academic point of view I can't see why there should be any problem.

Having found that electronics and distance learning don't really work well together yet, I decided to try and find a university or college which would allow me to study part-time during the evenings. This, you would think, should be relatively easy because afterall, all colleges and universities these days run evening classes don't they? Infact, it seems that evening classes are often a busier time for the colleges than the daytime.
Unfortunately though, I've yet to find a university or college in my area who will run an electronics course in the evenings. They run everything else, from childcare to IT, but the answer is no when it comes to electronics.

There's definately going to be a massive shortage of electronics engineers and technicians in the near future I reckon! I'll keep on searching and see if I can turn up anything.

Brian

Have you tried the Open University?

JimB

I was in kind of in a similar situation here in the states. I've been working full time as a computer/network technician for the last 7 years. After all that time, it's clear to me that there in no future in that path. Computer techs will soon go the way of television repair. Anyone who wants to argue this point, feel free to PM me, I will be happy to politely debate you till the cows get delivered to McDonalds.

Seeing no future, I decided that I had to get back into school. At this point, I'll assume that your considering an EE degree.

I don't think you could pick a more flexible degree at this point in time. First off, a true engineering degree (one that actually involves a lot of math) opens doors that other degrees just don't. If you can survive 3+ semesters of calculus, differential equations, linear algebra, and real analysis; not to mention the physics and electronics classes themselves, you will show yourself as someone who is not only intelligent, but able to learn and adapt to challenging situations. 2nd, as you have noted yourself, there will continue to be a demand for new electronic devices, just wait till city/county/country wide wireless broadband becomes common. As I keep telling friends and family, in 5 years, you won't recognize the world anymore, it will have changed so much.

The great thing about pursuing an engineering degree is that there is so much math, you could easily complete a large portion of the degree at any local university. In my area at least, all the higher level math classes are offered at night, usually 1 night per week, it's very easy to work around a full time job. You will also need classes like chemistry and basic calc based physics, it might be tougher to find these at night.

This part will largely depend on your personal situation. I'm single, once I was almost done with math, I went down to part time at work, moved in with my Aunt Deb, and started looking into financial aid to pay for school. I'll be done with my degree in about 1 to 1.5 years, there is no way I can be any worse off then I was working as a full time computer/network tech.

If your thinking at all of pursuing this kind of career, I have to urge you to follow it through to completion. I know 3 people that have the skills to be EE's and are even doing the work of one, but they are getting paid so much less then they should be. However, they have houses, wives, and kids, so jumping back into schools isn't as easy for them.

If you can swing it, go for it.

I have tried the OU yes, but unfortunately they have very little to offer that's relevant to electronics and they don't do an electronics specific degree qualification so I had to cross them off my list.

I do have a family but that doesn't mean I can't study. All it really means is that I wont be able to study very much at home because of all the distractions. A local library takes care of that

Thanks for the replies both

Brian

Try Engineering council, UK, Surch in the web, you can get all the contact details.

I'll try them thanks a lot for the tip. If I turn up anything useful I'll post back here and let you know!

Brian

I agree, unless you actually go to Uni you are not really in for a good chance of getting an electronics degree.

One tip I can offer though, is, if you can!!! get on a masters cource that is accredited by the IEE. That will open up more doors than you need. MEng degrees will get you further than a BEng, You also can't become chartered with just a BEng anymore. Believe me, there will be NO shortage of electronic engineers any time soon, only off highly quallified ones, so remember that an MEng will get you an interview almost every time compaired to a BEng.

There is however a shortage of electrical engineers though. This is largely because of the new laws, bureaucracy and backhand jobs & money for minister's friends in my mind. But if you can afford the couple grand a year just to work, then you might want to look into electrical engineering cources as well as electronic cources, these tend to be far more abundant in colleges.

Yes, here in the U.S., they're closing electronics programs down at a phenominal rate and is the reason that I'm no longer teaching. There are still some commercial trade schools such as ITT and DeVry that offer electronics, but most government-funded schools are switching over to computer repair rather than electronics. It's a shame. If you ever read a typical A+ computer repair certification textbook, you'll usually find that the lone chapter on electronics is typically fraught with errors out the wazoo -- primarily because the book was written by a computer geek who knows computers and only thinks he/she knows all about electronics.

At the rate that electronic devices are becoming turn-key and disposable, there will be a need only for design engineers (machines will build the equipment) and none for repair techs. Ever see them repair defective modules on Star Trek? Heck, no! Replaceables only. The bad ones are recycled through the ship's food system and become tomorrow's corn-beef hash.

Dean

Hi Thermalrunaway,

Would it be possible for your compnay to allow you to attend university / college one day a week? This is what i do and i have just come to the end of my first year. Basically i worked part time and went to college one day a week to gain an HNC in EE engineering. This was enough to get me on a degree course.

My company has no problem sending me as they see it that they will naturally benifit from my knowledge.

If your living in the UK from my experience an HNC or HND is the only way to achieve access to a degree course (part time). I do know you can get in with A levels aswel.

pm me if you want to discuss any of this further

hope it helps

Andy