Engineering advice wanted please !!

jonesy709_2

Dear all,

I am in the last few months of service in the RAF as an Electronics Engineer and following over 9 years of service am relocating as a civilian to Merseyside/North West.

I have various qualifications e.g :

Defence Vetted (DV)
Advanced Modern Apprenticeship in Engineering
NVQ Level 3 - Engineering Maintenance
BTEC National Certificate - Engineering
ILM - Certificate in Team Leading
Junior Management and Leadership

In addition to the above I have various Windows and Solaris qualifications gained during my time in the RAF.

I am hoping to gain work as an Engineer of some capacity and was wondering if anyone knew of which courses would be beneficial for me to undertake (as I'm entitled to courses before leaving) e.g 17th Edition Wiring Regs etc also can anyone reccommend any companies to apply to e.g TELENT, PEEK, BT etc.

I know I'm asking a lot but any help is much appreciated.

Many thanks in advance !!!

woody01

17th Edition is an INCREDIBLY difficult (and expensive) qualification to gain, and unfortunately, it is being updated constantly so the outlay is almost continuous.

What i would recommend is getting an engineering position and letting the company you work for pay for it.

I am also ex-forces with 12 years service (though not one of the 3 'mainstream') and found it amazingly easy to find work.
I only left 7 years ago, and now earn 4x what i did when i had an RSM breathing down my neck.

Zazen999

If it were me; I'd do any electrical or plumbing courses as they are very expensive, with little funding available. And good electricians/plumbers with a good all round engineering discipline background are hard to find!

jonesy709_2

Woody01,

Thanks for the advice - I suggested the 17th Edition as I would only have to contribute 20% of the cost and thought it would improve my CV.
Also....you're not after recruting anyone are you !!??

paulrn_2

Your circumstances might not let you but I would suggest staying in for a while. The economic situation is still not good in the outside world. Dont believe the Hype about how much employers love the military you will be up against hundreds of civvies with a track record in industry and many jobs are short contract which will give you no stability.

For every tale you hear about I am making loads of money there are ex Officers and Senior rates doing jobs well below their ability. I have been lucky and have a consulting job in the defense industry but many of my mates are security guards etc.

Take care

woody01

The economic situation is still not good in the outside world.

For manual labour i agree.
For management posts, and skilled labour, it is actually very good,

Dont believe the Hype about how much employers love the military you will be up against hundreds of civvies with a track record in industry and many jobs are short contract which will give you no stability.

DO believe the hype!
The ones that struggle when they leave the forces are the ones that loafed their way through it when they were in there.

alexmac_uk123

woody01 wrote: »

17th Edition is an INCREDIBLY difficult (and expensive) qualification to gain, and unfortunately, it is being updated constantly so the outlay is almost continuous.

If the 17th edition is anything like the 16th edition regs exam then you will pass it, i flew through getting 99% with 30 mins to go. It is being updated constantly but it is useful to put down on the CV as employers look for this.

hartcjhart

anything that you can do a course on like,High grade welding stainless steel etc /pipefitting/17th ed/PAT testing/rigging/crane driving

there will soon be a hell of a lot of work available constructing the new powerstations (nuclear and non nuclear)and the pay rates are very good.

there is also a lot of ongoing maintenance that although seasonal pays very well also

euronorris

Are you only interested in the manual aspect, or are you open to the technical side also? ie, design and planning etc?

Either way, are there not certain areas that you can concentrate on, to lead to a speciality within engineering?

I'm just wondering if it would be better for you to approach the decision with an idea of where you would like to end up first. ie, if you were interested in the technical side then it may be beneficial to obtain a qualification more suited to that aspect (not saying your current qualifications aren't (as I don't know), just throwing some ideas out there).