Application

Jeff Atwood tells me that I have to keep the posts coming if I am to obtain anything from this writing process. It doesn't matter if they're good or bad - the posts must be written - sorry! He writes the excellent blog 'Coding Horror'. There's a lot of good stuff for coders in there as well as some nice humour. But it's the variety of topics that impresses me and keeps reminding me that I have to branch out a bit - perhaps.

Anyway, I'm currently looking into the possibility of taking on some kind of part time engineering course at a local community college to hone my practical machining skill's while I don't have any workshop of my own. I did find that the Thames Gateway College provides the C&G course that I have talked about before on a part time basis. However, they don't mention what 'part time' means in terms of timetable specifics. It might just mean 'three days a week' which wouldn't really work for me. I've put in an application anyway so we'll see what happens. I also got accepted on a Welding Course at Newham College but I'm not going to take it on now as I'd really like to crack on with some machining. Oddly Newham don't understand the concept of part time evening courses either. The classes are in the evenings but the enrollment is scheduled for 10:00am on a Tuesday? Work anyone?

Oh well, I could write more but the bus is pulling into Victoria now so it'll have to wait until my return journey. Should I re-title the blog: 'Elliot's banal bus blog'?

Skills development void

With my current resolve to do something constructive with my hands I decided that I'd like to get some practical training and develop some skills using CNC machines and perhaps some welding. Being aware of hotcourses and floodlight I thought it'd be fairly easy to locate a suitable evening course at a local community college.

My searching however was fruitless, yielding only a welding course at Newham college. Instead I turned to the 'City and Guilds' website to investigate relevant qualifications that they offer in this field. Sure enough I found a course that looked perfect: 'Performing Engineering Operations'. It seemed to have a nice mix of machining and welding - quite exciting. Next I needed to find a course provider who would offer this as a part time evening class. A quick postcode search at City and Guilds indicated that the City and Islington College - right on my doorstep - was registered to provide this course. Excellent...

Unfortunately it turns out that although the college is registered to provide this course it does not currently offer it to students. In fact the majority of colleges registered for 'Performing Engineering Operations' do not actually provide it. Furthermore, the institutions that did only offer it on a full time basis so I'm out of luck there.

I've tried to find alternatives by posting requests for information on both the Maker forum and the sci.engr.mech newsgroup but there as been little information arriving. An educational professional has explained that my difficulty in finding a course is due to the reluctance of the govenrment to provide opportunities for learning that do not lead to a qualification. However, this does not quite explain why I could have my pick of Jewelry manufacturing courses but can't find anyone to teach me how to use a CNC machine.

My next port of call will be the Open University but I find it unlikely that I'll be able to learn practical engineering skills by mail!