I guess off the back of the ‘What Do You Do?’ thread it occurred to me that while I thoroughly enjoy my current job the country I work in won’t keep issuing me work visas forever and I’ll eventually have to find something else. Currently I do a lot of analytical chemistry, method development, training of the local workforce, etc. but I’m also leaning fairly heavily into regulatory compliance, auditing, process/chemical engineering, process control and a bit of basic database/analytics tomfoolery.

Having worked in oil & gas for a while I’d like to offset some of that carbon I’ve been indirectly responsible for with a move into renewables/green energy but I’m not entirely sure where my current skillset would fit in. I reckon I’ve got around 3 years here before the government start questioning why a national isn’t doing my job, and I work a 31 on/25 off rota, so I have the time to do a longer distance-learning type study program. But in what? OU does a general engineering degree with a module on Renewable Energy but I’m not sure if that’s enough or where I might end up after that. Do I go with vanilla engineering or should I look more at programming/electrical or something else I’ve not even considered? Is there a better option than the OU? I’d be equally happy if I ended up doing something out in the wilderness fixing wind turbines/tinkering with hydroelectrics/surveying the countryside for potential green energy sites as I would sat behind a desk designing PLCs/project ‘planning’/etc.

Any advice would be much appreciated.

Can you do a postgraduate course? Somewhere like Cranfield do MSc and PGdip part time / remote hybrid courses and will have something more relevant to renewables.

Not sure what’s involved but the Centre for Alternative Technology do post grad courses as well.

OU does a general engineering degree with a module on Renewable Energy but I’m not sure if that’s enough or where I might end up after that.

Very generic. Might look good on your CV but only if you don’t already have an undergradute degree. I’d look at something more subject specific.

A lot of unis are looking to develop their online courses, so see if there is a course that you like and if the uni offers it part-time or remote. Might be more challenging with an engineering course though.

Other options might be a more business/management related one to sit above/alongside your current skills? What degree/masters qualifications do you already have? If you have’t got a masters then you can get a student loan to pay for it

My sister whilst worked at Cranfield in IT support for their finite element analysis software

He degree was electronic engineering

She did an open university module in finite element analysis. This was just enough for her to swap to teaching the software and eventually become an academic in structures

My daughter did two open university units instead of A levels as she was too ill to go to school. This was enough to get her into university

So based on this I think open university units do have currency. But obviously you’ll want to make sure it’s teaching you what you need to know

Having done the OU Engineering degree. I’m not sure I’d recommend it.
I had an HND in engineering systems, so studied it to get a Bachelors whilst working offshore in a 21/21 rotation. It was fine, but it definitely felt as though it lacked detail/thoroughness in comparison with other engineering degrees.

You’d probably be better off with an MSC/post grad course somewhere. Though it would largely come down to what type of role in renewables you want. I feel as though anything on a Beng/Msc is likely an overview of renewable systems, more geared towards management of /deciding on a type of system rather than engineering specifics for them.
But the actual Mechanical/electrical/structural type engineers I’ve met in renewables come from ‘normal’ engineering degrees. Nothing Renewables specific.

If your happier tinkering and want into that side you’d probably be better spending the equivalent money on GWO certs and a turbine technician training package.

She did an open university module in finite element analysis.

I did that one in the 90s! Was really interesting – found a few bugs in their SW as well…..

A quick google suggests it was “M372 Numerical methods for differential equations” which they no longer run.