With an HNC, not being a UK national and trying to get into an apprenticeship, I would suggest the chances are up there with a snowball in a fiery place.
I don't know any organisations that would take on a non-UK national for 3 years of training only for that person not to be able to work for you at the end of it. Why should they spend time and money helping somebody get residency or whatever when there are hundreds of safer bets queueing up for an apprenticeship? Apprenticeships cost companies a lot of wonga and they do it for business reasons - to keep progression of people through their organisation going, nothing altruistic about it.
This might be a bit controversial to put into print but why invest in and train up a foreign national who may well up sticks and leave at the end of it when little Joey down the road will bite your arm off for the job and live happily ever after half a mile a way with mum and dad then marry the school days sweetheart and settle down.
Also, why would a company take on an apprentice who already has the educational qualification that they will be putting their apprentices through? Most companies will take on a few apprentices to get economy of scale. Take on somebody who already has the educational qualification and you would end up with a two tier system that costs more to manage. Might work if you find a smaller company looking for 1 apprentice that would welcome avoiding the educational costs. Also, wouldn't you be bored senseless re-doing the same classroom stuff you've been doing for the last two years? Risk for the employer is that the person jacks it in because bored and investment is lost.
Apprentice pay is very low. Would you want to commit to three years of low pay after suffering two years on student loans or whatever?
What value is an HNC? Questionable as far as I'm concerned. Without being able to show competency on the tools there is no use having a brain the size of a planet - you have no value to a company. It may get a foot in the door as a mechanic but they will take a Kwik-Fit fitter first because they know they can use their hands and can educate them enough for what they want out of them.
There are a hell of a lot of colleges and universities offering NVQ's, NC's, HNC's, foundation degrees, full degrees, etc in aeronautics but not having in place possibly the most important thing when it comes to these courses and that is good hand skills training and work placements. Personally, I think some higher education establishments are ripping people off with offerings of wonderful career prospects if you do their courses.
What has brought on this glut of academic courses? Studies and articles have been published about the shrinking work force, the increase in air transport, people not wanting to be engineers, etc. Colleges see all this and think "Hey, there's a demand out there for a course. I'm going to fill that and make lots of money for my college." However, they look at what needs to be done to get (and maintain) a Part 147 approval and think "Sod that, I'm not going to do all that so I can sell B1/B2 courses, I'll sell HNC's instead. People see them as a good qualification and maybe won't see the pitfalls until it's too late."
Best thing any college could do is to sign up with a major maintenance organisation to do a course like the old degree sandwich course. You go to college for 2 years, get your HNC and have a guaranteed work placement at the end of it (or in the middle) for the 18 months or whatever is required - college can sell a meaningful course, organisation gets cheap labour and student gets valuable hands on experience. That would be an apprenticeship in any other words but the difference is that it is not the maintenance organisations responsibility to manage the program, employ the students or all the other stuff that goes along with permies. The college would be responsible for all that. Minimum risk and cost to the employer, maximum benefit to the student.
I'm sorry if all the above disheartens people studying HNC's or the like. I personally think this is a great industry to be in (plenty other people on here don't but that's up to them) and would welcome them into it with open arms. This industry needs new people but industry and the colleges must work together to produce people with the knowledge, skills and capabilities that the industry can use.
I wish everybody in these programs the best of luck, I really do, but maybe some people have not been given the best advice before embarking on this road.