Degree in Aircraft Maintenance Engineering

[206Fan]

Hi Guys,

I have been browsing through all the Universities in the UK to see how many offer courses in Aircraft Maintenance. To my surprise not very many do. I did however come across a Degree course at the University of Glamorgan in Cardiff.

Courses - About - University of Glamorgan (http://www.glam.ac.uk/coursedetails/685/96)

So I was wondering has any of you good people on here completed this course or is anyone currently on this course? Does the course include any Helicopter related content?

Any Information would be great.

Cheers
Dave

[IFixPlanes]

Search for "EASA CAT B" or "EASA Part 66" Course offered by EASA Part 147 approved organisations.


BTW: did you read the course brochure in your linked course?
...After you successfully complete the course, you must work for two to five years in an approved aircraft maintenance organisation (EASA Part 145) before full signatory powers can be awarded by EASA. The period of time is dependent upon you meeting all EASA Part 66 requirements, while studying on this approved EASA Part 147 Part 66 course. ...

[Geezer7348]

Davy,

As mentioned in the post by IFixPlanes the courses you are after is either A3/A4 or B1.3/B1.4 depending upon your preference.

A list of UK Training Providers can be found in the link shown below.

http://www.caa.co.uk/docs/177/Part147%20Basic%20Master%20v54%2012-2009.pdf

[surfayoob]

If u want to get license means, u do EASA exams and all. But if u want to get a degree means, u do in kingston university. It ll be good in uk than u already preferred one k.

[forget]

I suppose the sun is well over the yardarm in India. :hmm:

[grafity]

Do an apprenticeship if you want to become and aircraft maintenance engineer. Do a degree if you want to become an aeronautical engineer.

[flame_bringer]

I wouldnt recommend you to do a college degree if you're aiming for maintainance as that qualifies you to go for designer level and construction and things as such .
If you want to go for maintanance then do an apprenticeship otherwise you'de be wasting your age because no company will hire you with the college degree.

[Tranwell]

no one hires degree qualified newbies apart from BA, Virgin, KLM, various other maintenance companies such as Storm, Flybe.............................................

If you can get an apprenticeship, then good on you. If you go the academy route, make sure they offer all B1.1 modules. I don't think you can get other packages except B1.1 at the moment, but many do additional modules which will allow you to pick and choose which licence you wish to aim for. Experience is everything when job hunting. My advice is to stay in education until the long-awaited recovery, as no-one is recruiting in any quantity at the moment.... then again, i work for an academy, so I would say that......

Good luck in whichever path comes your way.

[Long Bay Mauler]

If you guys are already theory qualified,but have no real long time exposure,then why not try Australia?

Both Qantas & Virgin are struggling to get qualified AMEs & LAMEs,as well as the smaller airlines.

And from what I can see on the airmech site in regards to wages,Australia is certainly up there in what is currently being paid to engineers worldwide.

Plus on the upside,the weather is a damn sight more pleasant to work in.

:ok:

[nodrama]

Davy07,

I'm currently doing the Glamorgan BSc Aircraft Maintenance Engineering course. I already have fix-wing/ rotary licenses and alot of civil aviation experience. I'm doing the B1.3 (rotary) top-up route, so the course does offer a helicopter syllabus, but the majority of the course is still fix-wing based.

If you're looking at doing a degree course such as this to obtain EASA maintenance licenses and get into civil aircraft maintenance, I wouldn't recommend it (the learning route that is, not the course). If you haven't got the background knowledge and experience already, you'd be letting yourself in for alot of hard work. You'd be better off committing that time, energy (and money) into concentrating on just getting the licenses......the degree won't make you any more employable and without being able to back it up with experience, I think, would be pretty meaningless.

My reasons for doing the degree are for self-satisfaction, proffessional development and to aid a move into a different part of the aviation industry.

[Genghis the Engineer]

My reasons for doing the degree are for self-satisfaction, proffessional development and to aid a move into a different part of the aviation industry.

Which are very good reasons!



I think it's worth remembering the issues of education versus training. If you want to fix or build flying machines, which is a licenced engineer or equivalent, you need some education and a lot of training - leading to licences.

If you want to design, test or analyse aeroplanes, which is ultimately as a chartered engineer or equivalent, you need some training and a lot of education - leading to a degree, and later to IEng or CEng.

(Then both then generally require a lot of experience to make you really useful.)


If you are unclear as to the difference between education and training, imagine your daughter coming back from school and telling you that she's done sex education - you'd not be too worried. Now imagine her coming back from school and telling you she's spent the afternoon doing sex training...


The aircraft maintenance degrees on offer are, to a large extent "neither fish nor fowl", so they'll help you take either route, but much else is then (or previously) needed for it to make you properly employable.

G

[john_tullamarine]

If you are unclear as to the difference between education and training, imagine your daughter coming back from school and telling you that she's done sex education - you'd not be too worried. Now imagine her coming back from school and telling you she's spent the afternoon doing sex training...

.. can we all use that .. or do you claim IP rights ?

[Sonic Bam]

I would suggest you define what career path you want to follow as well.
If it is maintenance, as many of the guys above have said, go for an apprenticeship (way too few around just now so not easy) or go on a B1/B2 Part 66 course at a Part 147 organisation.
If you want to get into design/development/tech services I would suggest you look at an Aeronautical Engineering degree not the Aircraft Maintenance courses that have sprung up over the last 5 years or so. Have a look at the RAeS page Where to Study? (http://www.raes.org.uk/raes/careers/study.htm).

[ProfEng]

Many colleges in UK offer courses which are not what they are cracked up to be.

The outcome of any EASA B Category Licence course, whether or not it's wrapped up in another qualification, MUST be a Basic Training Certificate, issued by a Part-147 approved Basic Training organisation. The licence "promised" by some Colleges only comes after the required amount of work experience can be demonstrated, which they fail to point out.

To qualify for that, the course must include all the Practical Training and the OJT, with the OJT being done in a Part 145 approved MRO, with a proper structured OJT programme, under proper instructors and assessors. The college or course provider must be able to guarantee this from the outset, otherwise it may well not be there when needed.

The primary provider itself must be Part 147-approved and not covered by another company's approval with some kind of mutual back-scratching arrangement, with no effective oversight on the quality of what is delivered.

With those critieria in mind, most of the courses offered by Further Education Colleges as "EASA Cat B" courses are a waste of money. I'm not talking about Foundation Degree courses here; they are a different animal altogether.

Not all are bad; there are 2 genuinely good-value courses on offer at present in the UK. Those two do not include one which evidently seeks to accomplish the OJT element by forcing its students to pay extra for a B1 type-rating course (I'm not kidding), and the availability of that is not guaranteed.

[Genghis the Engineer]

If you are unclear as to the difference between education and training, imagine your daughter coming back from school and telling you that she's done sex education - you'd not be too worried. Now imagine her coming back from school and telling you she's spent the afternoon doing sex training...

.. can we all use that .. or do you claim IP rights ?

Help yourself, it's not original - although I'm not sure I can remember where I stole it from. Possibly Times Higher Education Supplement?, but I'd not swear to that.

G

[nazirul87]

from my understanding, degree is need as a fast track to get the licence as per as part 66 and the college is under part 147 organization. compared to others that need at least 3 years experience in life aircraft.

in Malaysia also, we have Degree in Aircraft Maintenance Technology and EASA part 66 program which merge with Germany institute

MIAT Malaysia websites

UniKL MIAT Website (http://www.miat.unikl.edu.my/v2/)