Employment Opportunities.

[conny]

I have a friend who is interested in working with electronics but has no formal qualifications.

He repairs things like I-Phones, I-Pads, Laptops, Games Consoles etc but would like to find a job doing this sort of work. With no formal qualifications he knows it would be impossible to find employment in this field so can anyone advise him on the best courses to apply for?

He is 25 so I think an apprenticeship is probably out of the question.

 

[Taylortwocities]

Working in "Electronics" is not the same as being an electrician.

In which does he want to worK?

 

[cjard]

(changed my mind about this post)

 

[securespark]

He is 25 so I think an apprenticeship is probably out of the question.

I started my official apprenticeship at the age of 22.

 

[PrenticeBoyofDerry]

I would investigate in to what qualifications potential employers are looking for, might be worth looking on the job search websites for electronic engineer/technician vacancies and seeing what they are asking for.

City and Guilds do a 2359 L2 and L3, I personally do not know how suitable this course is, but there is a link here;
http://www.cityandguilds.com/qualif...ical-and-electronic-servicing#tab=information

 

[Taylortwocities]

That's no good he has …..

... a friend who is interested in working with electronics .

He probably should be looking at Electrical and Electronic Engineering (8030)


But I dont think he really knows what his "friend" wants to do. Thats why i asked the question (silence since then……. )

 

[conny]

Thanks for the replies guys.

TTC, yes my 'friend' wants to work in electronics not be an electrician.
I will pass on the link you have posted and hopefully it will lead him in the right direction and give him some inspiration.

SS, so do you think it may still not be to late for him to look at this avenue of training?

PBoD, good point about looking into what qualifications potential employers would be looking for. I'll pass that on as well.

As for the silence since posting.
It was my step-sons 16th birthday yesterday so we were out celebrating with him and then came home last night and had a bit of a private party.

Once again, thanks for the replies and I will pass the information on.

(PS. I am an electrical engineer in a good job and at my age, (over half a century), I have no interest in pursuing a different employment trail believe me, )

 

[ericmark]

Courses for school levers are very different to those aimed at older students much will depend on his maths.

The maths for electrical and electronic engineering, sound and vision, performance car, and other engineering courses was the same. We all were in the same lessons.

Even out of the maths class still there was a lot of maths so before looking for a suitable course you need to know his level of maths.

'A' level maths is not one course there are a few which work on different aspects so some people with 'A' level will not have been taught imaginary numbers other will have.

When I went to get formal qualification the first thing was a maths exam and once taken then I was told which course I was most likely to succeed on with the highest end qualifications.

Likely it will be a HND or Foundation degree course he will require they are both considered as same level often HND is part time where Foundation degree is full time. Full time often means just 16 hours of lessons part time often just 8 hours. The major problem is those 8 hours are normally day time hours.

I remember doing the maths to work out the size of heat sink required believe me it's not easy. There is a huge step between replacing the odd component to working in electronics. I have seen the guys who claim they can build a computer. All they did was assemble ready made parts.

I had jobs myself where I would look for faults but in the main it was card swap and send old one for repair. The guys who repaired those cards were the clever ones as often we would see how modifications had been included to prevent known faults. So although not designed from scratch the guys still had to have that training.

The big problem is the speed of change. New components are coming out all the time. But the maths in the main does not change. The problem with maths is at low level we may not understand the question. When I was asked if I could do logarithms I answered yes I had used log tables every day in school. But that was not what was meant it was far more involved. So looking at a syllabus can be misleading.

I thought Norton's Threom was something to do with the design of the feather bed frame on a motor cycle!

 

[ban-all-sheds]

some people with 'A' level will not have been taught imaginary numbers other will have.

Those that have are all working in The Treasury....

 

[conny]

some people with 'A' level will not have been taught imaginary numbers other will have.

Those that have are all working in The Treasury....

 

[ericmark]

OK I suppose I asked for that one.

For non electricians imaginary numbers is all about finding the square root of negative numbers. It is used by electricians to work out power factors among other things.

Engineering use the letter J and in pure maths it uses the letter i

I will admit I some times wonder why a house basher would ever need to learn maths to that level? In fact most engineers will use computer programs once they leave college or uni as one too easy to make an error and two very time consuming to do manually.

However in the courses half ones time is spent in some way doing maths. Anyway I am sure one could construct a truth table with a little help from JK!

 

[theflyingpolak]

I thought Norton's Threom was something to do with the design of the feather bed frame on a motor cycle!

I like that.

Long time reader, but first time poster.

I made a joke 25 years ago in college along those lines where it all started for me.

 

[ericmark]

Ups am I showing my age? Same Irish guy invented the Little Nelly as used in James Bond and the Mule 4 x 4 personal carrier. He said in the video in Hollywood (Ulster not USA) that there was an unrecoverable problem with the Little Nelly design but did not say what it was.

Seems Mule was made into a racing car to try and sell it, Won some races then 4 x 4 was banned for racing cars.