Engineering courses?!?!

Also Durham, Warwick, and quite a few others.



It's not necessary to have a specifically nuclear "qualification"

Eg https://www.baesystems.com/en/careers/careers-in-the-uk/graduates/graduate-opportunities/current-opportunities/nuclear--engineering

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Wow, thank you. I wasn't aware this was a possibility!

Ahh right I think I'm busy for most of the holiday so best not put even more stress on ahah...it's the holiday after all 😂

Very true! Should probably do the same but I'm trying to do everything this year, instead of trying to do stuff next year to put on a personal statement haha

Good idea ahah especially seen as we don't have any real exams this year

Yeah, still stressed out tho. Should probably stop taking on so much at this point haha

Just to be clear, you do not need engineering (or any) work experience prior to applying for an Engineering course.

Your academics (A-levels) are the things to focus on.

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You have the equipment and software at home to do that? I doubt it! Solidwork and CATIA aren't cheap and nor are the machines to actually make the thing you design.

It's perfectly possible to have a degree that offers BOTH theory and hands-on and these days I'd say it's essential.

Ahh okay, thank you. I really need to find out more about all of these things.

You don't need to learn it at home, you can learn it on uni computers. There are also plenty of short evening courses at universities or colleges which offer it.

Many universities will offer Solidwork or AutoCAD licenses for their students. There are also plenty of free CAD softwares available, in particular SketchUp and Fusion 360. The equipment you need is pretty much any basic laptop as long as you're not creating highly detailed assemblies. So yes, you definitely can learn it at home. I, as well as plenty other students at my university did.

I didn't say it's not possible, just that there are certain things you shouldn't necessarily focus on because they're easy enough to pick up in passing or can be picked up by getting involved in extracurricular projects, which you should be doing anyway.

CATIA? You need more than a basic laptop to really use this software ...
You cannot teach yourself as well as someone who uses the software to design 'real' things; things you learn from 'doing' in industry. You certainly won't have experience of actually making the things you design.

In general university graduates are not expected to know CATIA, hence why plenty of universities don't have it...

Though that said I do know a couple of people who have self taught it

And no, you won't be able to teach yourself that well for the specific thing you might be working on in industry, but neither will a uni course.

Wrong on two points. Several unis do have CATIA and it is a good plus to your CV as it makes you stand out. Some unis do teach to industry standards and actually make things for 'real'.

Several yes, mine is one, hence why a few people I know have self taught it because they have a few licences. It is by no means common or expected though.

Yes, some unis do teach to industry standards, but the best ones teach you everything else with the expectation that you can easily learn and adapt to new standards given to you, because that expectation is usually correct. No point teaching you knowledge if you're going to be assigned on an entirely new project when you don't know how to learn quickly.

Thank you, and I think that is my issue as I find most types interesting. I think I would really like to work on innovating. I have an interest in aspects of nuclear engineering but I would like to see what else is out there. I really enjoy thinking outside the box for ideas and how we can make things better and get them to work, I guess?

Thereis also absolutely no point in doing a course stuffed with just theoiry and no application or 'hands-on'; you just won't get a good job in industry these days.

I literally never said this. I said it's pointless putting a lot of content which is easily self learned in a degree. You want the foundations to get people interested and give them an imagination for where they can go with it, but after that students can take care of themselves. I'm all for practical projects, about 40% of my course has been hands on, but we don't need the constant teaching of stuff like CAD to do them, because we're expected to self teach as we need them.

You've totally missed the point I was making. You learn to design not just 'use CAD' - you need to learn design.

Where are you studying btw?

Yes, and my point was you learn that stuff by doing, not by being taught. Your lecturer can try and teach you that stuff, but they won't do a good job at it as they will only know about the considerations for a handful of niche scenarios at best, because that's what you will generally learn in any situation including industry. You will learn the same lessons having a go at it by yourself.

Sheffield.

You wont learn in 'false' scenarios. Some unis actually employ lecturers with industry experience so they know about what makes a good design. You can't learn without making something and seeing why it won't work or how it can be improved.

How many items have you actually made in your course? How much workshop time have you had?

I mean, that's pretty much the epitome of bad engineering if you can't see a design won't work without doing a practical test, but ok, if you say so. Then again I do aero where there is perhaps higher emphasis on getting things right the first time without having to do iterative practical testing, so that might be why our approaches diverge.

In my course, definitely in the 10s, two of which were larger assemblies. Probably quadruple that if you add in extracurricular projects, and I have no idea how I would even go about quantifying my pre-university experience. Workshop time on the course, around 200 hours+, maybe double that for extracurriculars, and again difficult to quantify for pre-university.