Dear BCW
I would highly recommend that you read up on the source data.
Firstly, refer to EASA Part-66 which can be found in European Commission regulation 1321/2014 (google this and it will come up on EASA website). It used to be regulation 2042/2003 but this has just changed before Christmas.
You can download a consolidated version of Part-66 only which includes all acceptable means of compliance at
Q.C.M. - New consolidated version of QCM-Part-66 & new amendment to consolidated version QCM-Part-147
Subpart A of the regulation clearly explains what training and experience requirements you need.
You can can take a Part-66 course over two years which costs around £7500 per year and which is full-time and which are delivered by Part-147 approved training organisations (the CAA UK website has an up-dated list of all Part-147 approved organisations in the UK which deliver basic part-66 training). The last time I looked at this list, before Christmas, there was about 11 training organisations in the UK which delivered basic part-66 training (not specialised training on a particular aircraft - called type training.)
Doing such a two year course will not guarantee a licence or a job since you still need to get experience. It will however reduce your experience requirements from 5 years to 2 years. My experience is such that some of those courses are not worth the money and the standards are not always the same in all schools. You have to do a lot of self-study whilst in the school and this is not worth £7500 a year. But not all training organisations are the same.
Another option is apprenticeships which last 4-5 years with an approved Part-145 organisations. There are, sadly, not a great deal of such apprenticeships at the moment in ration to the amount of young men and women who would like to enter this profession.
The third option is self-study. if you are disciplined and can study well, then you can buy the modules course packs from a reputable place. I recommend Flybe UK as they are a Part-147 approved organisations and I have found their materials very good. Go on their training website. They have great facilities in Exeter. You can order each module manuals for between £25 to £50 (some modules are very large). Once you have studied a module, you can take an exam with them or directly with the CAA in various locations in the UK. The exam costs around £45. So you are looking at between £70 to £100 per module. There are approximately 13 to 14 modules to do depending on B1 or B2 pathway. There are also some essay questions to take, and that's a little extra money-wise but a few bobs.
The full list of modules and all the topics to be covered in the modules can once again be found in commission regulation 1321/2014. Again, I recommend that you go directly to the source of the regulation and requirements which EASA. That way, you cannot get the wrong information.
Once you have done your training requirements and exams, which would set you back approximately £1500, the biggest challenge now becomes getting experience.
Yes, if you were a young apprentice, you could hope to get an apprenticeship with one of the airlines/maintenance organisations. But there are so few apprenticeships and so many young people trying to get onto one, it is heartbreaking to see the difficulties that young people have in trying to get onto this career path.
So I will briefly tell you my story as I was also in my mid-30s when my children were all teenagers and I decided that I wanted to stop being a housewife and a legal secretary/supermarket worker, and study aircraft engineering as I had wanted to do when I was a teenager.
So I took myself to college and to uni and graduated at 38 with a BSc in Aircraft Maintenance Engineering. Now, that didn't give me the hand-skills needed for a Part-66 license. However, whilst at uni, and whilst everyone would tell me that I could never get work experience at Manchester airport (where I live), I chose to ignore negative advice and go ahead and forge my own opinions and make my own contacts. I wound up working on the line and in the hangar at Manchester airport two summers in a row with Flybe Engineerings Ltd. Unfortunately, they are no longer at Manchester airport. I was able to start keeping a log book and get valuable hands-on experience.
Upon graduating uni last year, I tried again to work at the airport to complete enough hands-on experience for a license. Had Flybe still been there, they would have happily let me come to complete work experience as the engineers there knew that I could do a good job. Unfortunately for me, they were not. And other airlines or maintenance organisations can have a very closed door approach to those would-be engineers, so no luck for me there.
Also unfortunately for me, being a woman in my late 30s, I am just not appealing enough for such employers! Since you are a bloke, it may work in your favour. However, better fortune came my way as instead I got onto a graduate scheme with the MoD, which doesn't discriminate on age. And so four months after graduating, I found myself working with projects relating to Typhoons and A400M. I then managed to spend six months at Manchester airport in a major airline via an MoD placement scheme. I am now enjoying a good career in aircraft engineering.
I still would like to eventually acquire a Part-66 licence for my own satisfaction. And I am continuing to work on this and relying on the goodwill of good friends I have made in the business over the past few years. I still need three more years of experience as I have been a "self-study" student. I am quite confident that I'll manage to achieve this. It's just getting the contacts I think.
What I am trying to say, bcw, is don't be put off my people telling you it can't be done. Because this is not true. You make your own tomorrow. And it is very realistic for you to at least get your studies done part-time, and then start doing the practical, or do it both at the same time if possible.
I cannot stress enough the importance of actually getting hold of the original source materials, such as EASA regulation, and seeing exactly what is required rather than listen to people's misconstrued interpretation of the regulations. Everything for Part-66 training is in the Part-66 regulation. You just have to learn all that is required, and hopefully learn it well. Then the next challenge is finding a place to do the experience. Local aerodromes are a good place to start, then expand from there.
All the best in your choice of career change. I certainly think aircraft maintenance engineering and aircraft engineering in general is just fab.
All the best,