The course will give you a superb grounding in the essential principles and techniques needed to meet the increasingly challenging and exciting nature of the Engineering industry. It has been designed to be relevant to the needs of employment in the fields of Design and within Mechanical Engineering.

As a student on this course you will have the benefits of using the College’s excellent facilities including 3D printing, an industrial robot, CAD/CAM suites and material testing laboratory. Current students are registered as student members of the Institute of Engineering Designers (IED). Completion of the course enables partial Incorporated Engineer registration.

During the first year you will use CAD software to produce both 2D production drawing and 3D models, undertake design simulations and run stress analysis. You will be introduced to the capabilities of 3D printing to produce physical models and use a CAM package to develop and simulate a milled product. There will be an introduction to business processes and theory within engineering companies and different project management techniques. This is tied together with the underpinning of mathematical theory, engineering science and materials science, including metal and polymer experiments.

During the second year you will be introduced to different design principles and how to undertake a design project. The importance of considering manufacturing methods is emphasised, as is engineering calculations and the behaviour of materials when developing your design. You will undertake a group design project and an individual, company relevant, project that will also demonstrate your ability to project manage. The business processes and theories from the first year will be applied through the production of a business plan. Your understanding of mathematical theory and engineering science will continue to be developed throughout the second year. If successful, you graduate at this point with an HNC and if you achieve the necessary grades you have the option to progress to the Foundation Degree.

In this third year of study you will develop your design techniques and analysis further with the work directly linked to marketing and business requirements within engineering. A more detailed company relevant major project is undertaken to demonstrate you can apply what you have learned over the last three years. You will also undertake writing your first academic paper for possible publication. To link in with the requirements for the IED and IMechE you will also undertake Continual Professional Development and a work based log throughout the year.