Mechatronics Vs Manufacturing Engineering

ormondprop

Hi i'm a mechanical fitter by trade working on automated lines in a factory and looking at upskilling by doing an online or night time course, LIT isn't to far from me and was looking at their level 7 course in manufacturing engineering which i could do part time over 2-3 years or do Mechatronic Engineering online through IT sligo or IT blanchardstown in 2 years, i know a few people who have completed the LIT course and i like how you can pick which modules you want to do but have not heard of anybody who has done the Mechatronic degree online so curious to hear from anybody who has done it with regard to how they found it and how many hours a week it tool altogether for lectures/project work and study

Also i'm wondering which would be a better option with regards to pay and job availability, or will both tend to lead on to similar jobs anyway

CatFromHue

These type of questions come up from time to time on here and I have to say they're very hard to answer.

My advice would be contact someone in Sligo IT, there's usually a dedicated person to contact on the course website, and ask them straight out what did people who've previously done the course get employment in and also about many hours there are etc. For the mechatronic course I'd imagine you'll have to travel up to Sligo to do practicals so ask about when they are held.

Don't be afraid to do this as that's their job to deal with these queries and usually they're actually very helpful.

If you go onto Irishjobs.ie you can do a search there for mechatronic and then for manufacturing to give you an idea of the types of jobs out there for those people at the moment.

andysheehan2003

ormondprop wrote: »

Hi i'm a mechanical fitter by trade working on automated lines in a factory and looking at upskilling by doing an online or night time course, LIT isn't to far from me and was looking at their level 7 course in manufacturing engineering which i could do part time over 2-3 years or do Mechatronic Engineering online through IT sligo or IT blanchardstown in 2 years, i know a few people who have completed the LIT course and i like how you can pick which modules you want to do but have not heard of anybody who has done the Mechatronic degree online so curious to hear from anybody who has done it with regard to how they found it and how many hours a week it tool altogether for lectures/project work and study

Also i'm wondering which would be a better option with regards to pay and job availability, or will both tend to lead on to similar jobs anyway

Hi OP,
i have completed the level 7 in LIT in manufacturing technology and iam currently about to start year 2 of the mechatronics course in Blanch IT.

The level 7 is definitely worth doing and if you have been out of the classroom for a while i would suggest going this route rather than going straight into the level 8 ( think you need to have completed a level 7 anyway). One thing i would suggest is that there is a part time level 7 mechtronics course also in Blanch and the level 8 follows on from this.

When i started the level 8 last September i did find the first semester tough going. Not so much the material but the workload. I had 4 modules before xmas as i choose soildworks as one of my optional modules.

The online lectures are tricky to get used to, for me anyway. But after a while you can get your head around it. With regard to how much hours per week - lectures are recorded and these can be 2 hours - its hard to sit an listen to a 2 hr lecture so what i would do is take it in chunks of 30 -40 mins make my notes and then go over it if i needed - but everyone is different.

Once a month of a Saturday you are scheduled in the college for practical and lab days - these are your best opportunity to question the lecturer so if possible don't miss any.

CA's ( continuous assessments) are part of the course on every module - but one difference from the LIT level 7 is that if a CA is worth 40% of the total marks - the final exam will be 60% - therefore you could , in theory have passed the module before sitting the final exam - takes a bit of pressure off.

Cant think of anything else to add but fell free to fire a few more questions and ill do my best to answer. Definitely worth doing though.