EBME Forums Forums Management Training foundation degree in medical engineering

Sounds a bit like déjà vu to me. Didn’t there used to be something called City and Guilds? Oh well, what goes around comes around, as they say. Can you get this new fangled thing with nothing else but thirty years experience, I wonder?

From my uderstanding QCA is the highest authority for qualifications approval, working closely with bodies like SEMTA who put together occupational standards. From which colleges map their courses to, bodies like City and Guilds, EDECEL (BTEC), NOCN..accredit these course accordingly.

The foundation degrees seem to be replacing HNC/HND (but dont say I told you that) but they are far more vocational, i.e. must be run in the workplace. A bit like the old EITB in the 70/80s. So geoff what goes around comes around, I suppose that would be correct.

You should be able to view the occupational standards on line via SEMTA website, however this is new and hot of the press and may not yet be listed. I will have a chat with John Sandaham and huw and see if they will place it on this site. (but after easter hols, im off home....)

I am still interested in the foundation biomed coarse.

Please could you let me know if the coarse is still running and the start date.

Thank you.

A.M

The foundation degree seems just to be a new name for a pass degree, but with more work place experience. In engineering it use to be that you'd be embarrassed to obtain one or in general people would take them at the OU if they were interested in a subject and just wanted to say they had a degree.

I take it a lot of people will want to convert them to a honours degree if that was possible.

I don't know what the situation is now but when i did my OU degree, a foundation course was a one year introduction to a subject at level 1, this would have been worth 60 points. To obtain a degree required 360 points with a maximum of 120 at level 1. To get a Honors degree would require at least 120 points at level 3. At the time an OU degree was ranked in the top ten of UK issued degrees.

I don't think that many people take a six year course on, just to say they've got a degree.

A quick trawl of the internet reveals that a foundation degree typically takes a two year period of study, and that other qualifications at the same level include NVQ Level 4 and the HND.

My HNC was worth 60 points at level 1 towards my degree. So it looks like Chris was right and in future i will have to say i've got a BSc Hons rather than a degree (mind you it appears that you can get one of these free with your cornflakes these days).

All I have at the moment is ONC. Which was the minimum requirement before AFC. I have been asking for time to do my HNC, with no luck. The foundation degree sounded like a good stepping stone that I could achieve over the next two years in my own time.

I am not sure what is going to happen with if I have to become registration with the HPC. I have meet the standard to get onto VRCT.

If you suggestion on how to improve my situation, please comment.

Thank you.

A.M

Then again there are gimmicky degrees that only take one or two years, are based around silly things like tv programs and there are also degree's that carry on from school studies. They often only require enought credits to be classified as a degree and you've got to question what good they actually do if you hold one!

That's why institutions require relevant degrees to be accredited by them if they're to be of most effective, professionally speaking, with respect to being recognised as relevant for the purposes of registration, for example. Institutions should work with employers to set them up.

My advice to anybody starting out on any career-path would be to apply for courses or training that leaves you with the appropriate level of qualifications or experience to get into the profession, accredited by professional institutions, and relevant to the career you wish to pursue.

Im sure you only need 300 points to get a degree, and 360 points if you ant it with honours. At the OU there are a couple of units you must take along with other "technical" units to gain a Beng/Beng(Hons) otherwise you get a BSc.

Ive briefly looked into this, but do you really need a degree to work in medical engineering??
personally I dont think so, I feel an engineering qualification with some clinical (human physiology etc) input is better option.