Think it's best to look at what he wants as an outcome and work backwards from that, working out what he really wants to do, where he wants to do it and how easy/hard it would be to get to where he wants.
The above might move him to save a little money and time, some companies offer support through uni, with On The Job placements during leave periods, same with companies taking in graduates or apprentices and then having access to training courses, university placements, etc, which can save a hell of a lot of money in the long term!
My side is mechanical engineering, in the MoD we tend to focus on the engineering qualification and level, so don't just think automotive engineering will mean Coventry and the midlands for life, we have several people with automotive degrees, to us it means they have the building blocks to move into other engineering posts, that could be on land based automotive systems, or moving into other domains, or engineering areas, such as HFI/Safety/Systems Engineering/etc.
To those saying that they don’t have the right qualifications to become chartered… think again and contact your institution. As long as you have a degrees in your chosen discipline) Masters preferred, but not necessary) there is a route. All the institutes have realised that not everybody goes down the BEng, MENg, accredited grad training scheme route anymore… there’s a route for you. It might involve additional work, i.e. report demonstrating your experience on top of the normal application/interview, but it’s definitely doable. You don’t need your workplace to be involved at all and their training/grad scheme is irrelevant, do it off your own back. Civil Engineering crops up here a lot so look here:
https://www.ice.org.uk/membership/membership-grades/member-ieng-or-ceng-mice/
As to whether the institutes are relevant /worthwhile that’s a another question altogether. But if it’s the last barrier to your progression at your workplace I’d say it’s probably worth the £350/yr, even if your co. is not paying for it.
Slightly leftfield option but geotechnical engineering might be worth a look. Elements of civil and structural with a good dose of actually awesome geology. Also in very high demand (we can't find enough geotech engineers).
The engineering degree at Southampton has the same first 2 years for everyone, and you specialize in the 3rd / 4th year. But I think Civils is a separate course.
my son is looking at Bath Uni for automotive as well, but entrance is A A A#!
If you want a high return on your education investment and a high chance of employability afterwards, I’d be looking at doing a Systems Engineering degree. Everything these days is looking toward maximising the product/service throughout its lifecycle and to do that you need to understand it and the use of it at various stages. That complex understanding is being managed by a more complex approach to systems engineering using MBSE modelling and System of Systems modelling. The beauty of SE is that it’s transferable to any industry in which complexity is a problem and that skills in these areas are few. It’s also got the right mix of practical knowledge and coding that you can work in manufacturing or as a cloud engineer should you do wish.
With regards to the maths, get him a copy of this, it's the 1st year maths textbook for every university engineering student.
It's dead easy to follow, the first page is pretty much 2+2, then 2+2+2, then 3x2 untill you're solving Laplace transforms and multiple order differential equations.
Not me but then my Loughborough Engineering Maths lecturer had written his own book so we obviously used that. One of the most memorable lecturers about. RIP Dr Mustoe, I pity anyone that turns up late wherever you happen to be now
I knew that was going to be KA Stroud before I even clicked the link. Weirdly our university strongly advised us not to use Stroud so didn’t bother with it until 3rd year and then F.me… a total revelation. It’s a great book. Though mine currently propping up a second monitor in my home office…
It’s dead easy to follow, the first page is pretty much 2+2, then 2+2+2, then 3×2 untill you’re solving Laplace transforms and multiple order differential equations.
Building Services engineer here, if we ever have to touch Uni level maths, it means we've done something wrong! 😂
For what it's worth I'd warn him off building services, reasonable job security, decent people and worthwhile salary (pays for multiple bikes at least) but horrible hours right now and decent project management seems to be sadly lacking.
As the proud holder of a BEng/2:2 it's probably my natural resting place but I'd love to be able to go a few weeks without some mad deadline panic or pointlessly unachievable list of deliverables 🙄
+lots for the KA Stroud maths books. About the only book from uni that I ever refer to.
Another Building Services engineer here - I'd echo what 13thfloormonk said!
On the bright side though there are plenty of jobs at the moment - we're really struggling with recruitment, especially on the electrical side.
Stroud - legendary book! Got me through uni maths, after struggling with it during NC and HNC in instrumentation, that and getting Wednesday afternoon maths tutoring by a maths PhD student! ....Also agree with comment re chartership and contacting your institution for advice. Managed to get a senior engineering manager to "sponsor" me rather than a work graduate development scheme, which worked well. Plus because my degree had a lot of geology thrown in (out of choice) interest) and not fully mechanical, got individual accreditation - so that's worth a go ..
Ask yourself why you want to ho to university and what you want out of it.
I used to look after the recruitment of engineering graduates for our organisation - circa a dozen a year.
I used to get really annoyed with candidates whose knowledge was impeccable (often better than mine is these days) but couldn’t think. As soon as you took them off the syllabus or outside the course bounds they went tilt.
Certain universities who prided themselves on the standard of their teaching produced the worst offenders. Over taught.
University should not be just another level of school. You should have to learn to find things out, apply some critical thinking, make judgments - learn to learn, learn to solve problems where the answers are not yet known.
Knowledge? Who cares, there’s Google for that. Application of knowledge, wisdom and judgement? Now you’re talking.
Oh yes, and a few years rite of passage down the pub / out at gigs / meeting interesting people etc.
