Careers Brief - Engineering (Manufacturing Management) HNC/FdSc

Overview

The 2 years part-time HNC in Engineering (Manufacturing Management) offers you a nationally recognised qualification to improve your career prospects and the opportunity to continue your studies in higher education to a higher level.

Success on the 3rd year part-time Foundation degree, provides both a higher level qualification and either a stepping stone onto a Top-up Honours degree course or the possibility of direct entry into the final year of an Honours degree.

Manufacturing management combines an interest in manufacturing technologies and processes, with the management of industrial facilities and people. Experience in production management or control, the supply chain or operational management, combined with the knowledge gained from your training on HE programmes, will make you well qualified in manufacturing practice and give you an understanding of business issues in industrial companies. This will make you well positioned for implementing change and adapting lean manufacture to your plant.

Your qualification demonstrates your competence to your employer and outside in the marketplace. Employers are looking for multi-skilled practitioners. In addition to technical skills and knowledge, you should also positively promote key personal employability skills and competencies you have developed.

Key employability skills include: being adaptable and a quick learner; strong numerical and analytical skills; organisational skills; problem-solving; planning and time-management; the ability to communicate effectively and work successfully with a wide range of people.

Useful active verbs for an engineering CV: designed, developed, devised, analysed, optimised, solved, supervised, liaised, researched, investigated, presented, drafted, organised, demonstrated.

Future career paths could be in technical management, training and consulting services, technical development, project planning, business management, patent law, FE teaching and research.

Opportunities are available in a wide variety of industries and companies within the UK and overseas.

For an overview of the industry sector, go to National Guidance Research Forum for 'LMI Future trends' and 'Sectors covered'.

Go to the website links below to find out more.

Further Study

You could transfer onto a related Honours degree course. Entry point would depend on your qualification, grades, industrial experience and overlap between courses.

Alternatively, there may be the possibility of applying for a full or part-time top-up degree. Top-up degrees are designed as a direct progression from Foundation degree to achieve an Honours (or Ordinary) degree, though entry may be selective.

Go to www.solent.ac.uk/courses/ for information on courses at Southampton Solent University.

To search degree courses go to www.ucas.com/ (UCAS - Universities and Colleges Admissions Service for the UK). Use the university/college links for course details.

Contact the Course Tutor of your chosen course to find out your position, before you make your formal application.

Find out how much this will cost you. Where is your funding coming from? Go to the university/college links for course costs and finance and to the section on Financial support for additional help.

Alternatively, you could consider 'topping up' your Foundation degree to Honours through distance learning with the Open University. You could be awarded up to 240 credits and then only need 120 credits of OU study at level 3 to achieve an Honours degree. Go to www.open.ac.uk/ to search undergraduate courses and credit transfer.

With a good Honours degree (First or 2.1), you may progress onto an appropriate higher level Masters and/or PhD doctorate. This could be to develop your area of study to a more in-depth practical and/or academic level or to gain other specialist training.

For information on postgraduate study and finance, go to the national online directory at www.prospects.ac.uk/study.htm .