I’ve been out of work for a good while now and I’ve been trying to get on some courses without much luck. They either cost too much or are full time which means I will lose my benefits.
My background is as a civil and structural engineering technician. I’ve tried various courses for solidworks and revit but can’t afford them, and I just applied for an open university course in design but received a letter from them yesterday saying my application for financial support had been refused because its not a foundation degree. That put me in a great mood yesterday.
I feel like I’m banging my head against a wall at the moment.
I’d like to get more into the architectural and design side of things. I have worked for a few architects in the past. Is there anywhere that does part time architectural courses? I’m not looking at becoming an architect at this point, I’d just like a bit more knowledge in this field.

Is architecture not a 6 year full time sandwich course ? How old will you be when you finish that part time?
Don’t think the architects are having a particularly good time of it in the current financial climate.

As much as I love architecture, the next few years are going to very difficult for the profession. Most companies are not currently taking on many students either Part 1 or Part 2, little prospect of any significant public sector work for the foreseeable future and insufficient confidence in the private sector to kick-start commercial development, all a bit bleak but overseas prospects much brighter.

However, lots of places do p/t degree and post grad architecture courses and if you were to start now, hopefully it might be picking up again in the UK by the time you were fully qualified.

I realise now is not the best time for Architecture, but as I’m out of work I thought I may as well try and get some training in for when things do pick up

Totally agree, don’t let me put you off! In terms of employable skills as you probably know it’s all heading towards BIM. As above REVIT seems to be the package to learn at the moment, so any opportunity to learn this is going to pay off in the long term, and as a student you should get the discounted software deal.