Career Advice
 

Hello Everyone!

My first post here as I'm at a bit of a loss on how to go about getting into Aviation Engineering ( Mechanical ).

I've checked out a few different universities and courses but am still none the wiser on how to go about it.

A bit about my current situation:

I'm 26 years old, kids, mortgage and a full time job ( HGV Driver )
I don't hold a degree or even any A Levels, at best all i have is 5 GCSE's A-C including science, maths and english.

At the moment ( to the best of my knowledge ) my best option seems to be undertaking a honors degree with the open university. Apprenticeships sadly aren't really an option for me due to wages, also a full time degree studying at a campus isn't really viable either as I have a mortgage like many!

I was just wondering if there is something else i can do to get my foot in the door, whether it be some form of night / weekend school/college/ university etc, or even better a distance learning type course.

Thank you all for reading and i thank you in advance for any replies this post gets :)

James

The first thing I'll ask is why do you want to get into aircraft engineering, and secondly are you willing to move away from the Ipswich area.

As far as I know, there is almost nothing in aircraft engineering in your area, with Wattisham being open almost exclusively to ex-forces technicians only. After that you have Marshall of Cambridge, then Stansted airport.

In the past, Marshall have run adult retraining courses, so maybe contact them and see what they suggest. Stansted, again as far as I know, doesn't have any companies currently running training schemes.

Next up is KLM at Norwich. They certainly are growing at the moment, but I think they're only taking on apprentices and experienced techs.

It's not an easy industry to get into with a hands-on-tools background, so I really can only advise that you try knocking on doors and calling companies.


Toan

At your age,perhaps the military route may be worth considering.

The OU degree is a good route - whilst less mainstream, the OU is highly regarded, and the whole system is designed for people like you who have commitments but a desire to progress in new directions that need academic qualifications. If you pick the right options (mostly mechanical ones), their BEng(Hons) will qualify you to go for Incorporated Engineer, and with the addition later of an MSc you could go for CEng.

There's a significant interchangeability between Aeronautical and Mechanical Engineering - plenty of people with MechEng degrees are working in aeronautics, and for what it's worth my degrees are in Aeronautical Engineering, and I managed to also become a Chartered Mechanical Engineer off the back of that.

Before you can progress with it, you're going to need much better maths and physics. There are two obvious ways to do this - either one of the OU's "access to..." courses that they offer for exactly this sort of purpose, and the other is go to a local college and do these by evening classes - there are various options there that'll get you first year degree entry: HNC, BTEC, A-levels, but if you are absolutely set on a degree, then I'd recommend the last, as they're specifically designed as university entry qualifications and will set you up best for degree level study.

In the long run, the chaps above are right that you're likely to have to move for jobs once you have your degree -we've all been up against that: obvious centres of graduate aero-eng jobs are around Bristol, Preston, Derby, bits of Hampshire and Wiltshire, Cambridge - but it can be possible to be reasonably settled once you've made that move. But with the OU route, you can put that off for a few years.

Good luck,

G