EBME Forums Forums Free discussion Free discussion Medical Engineering Technician

Hello.
I've just found this forum and i hope someone could help me answering some doubts i have.
First of all sorry for the bad english, as you can see in my profile, i'm portuguese.
I'm an Electronics Technician and in my actual job i do maintenance and repair services in industry electronics.
The reason i'm writing on this forum is because i'm considering doing some change in my career. I'd like to work as a Medical Engineering Technician(i think this is what it's called), i.e., i would like to provide maintenance and repair services to medical equipment and devices, and i would like to do that in UK.
My doubts are:
I do not have a degree neither any UK official diploma or certificate like HNC/HND, etc, is it ok to apply for a job in UK without this or shouldn't i even bother doing that without any of these documents?
If not, what can i do then to provide myself the opportunity to apply for these kind of jobs there?
Is there any kind of courses, equivalences, training periods, etc, i should/could do? Or being/not being accepted for this kind of jobs depends exclusively on the employer and not so much on the specific qualifications/certificates you have?
Please let me know more about this.
Thank you for all the help you could get me...

What qualifications do you actually have, do you hold any qualifications from outside the UK that could be considered equivilent?

If not I'd doubt you'd find a post in the UK without qualifications and expect you'd have to go to college to get them.

Hi Mike,
Welcome and don't worry about your English, it's fine.

We get a lot of overseas applicants to the jobs advertised on this site.

I think your best bet to find out answers to these questions would be to contact one of the recruitment companies who already help our overseas visitors.

Try Capital Medical Recruitment or Durbin Engineers. Both can be found on this site at https://www.ebme.co.uk/recruitment.htm

They should be able to assist with the issues of qualifications, work visas etc.

HI, thanks for both answers.
Answering Chris, yes, i do have qualifications in Electronics, i have a course in Electronics with specialization in Automation and Robotics, that's why i currently work in industry. My doubt is if with this qualifications i have a chance to successfully apply to a job offer, or do i need to have specific qualifications in medical equipments?
Anyway, i'll follow Huw's advice contacting rectruitment companies and wait for more answers.
Any further advice, opinion or job oppening news would be welcome.
Thanks...

If you specialise in automation and robotics there are some pretty well paid jobs in the pathology arena.

I don't think you should have any problems depending on your how equivilent your course is to UK electronics qualifications, availablity of specialist medical engineering qualifications are very slim and I suspect most people in the field have come in with standard electronics qualifications.

Check the righthand side of this sites homepage for vacancies or www.jobs.nhs.uk for jobs in the NHS.

Hmm..I have sometimes had an idea to work in Britain.I have studied electronics mechanician for two years and then three years for information technology technician.I have worked with laboratory and medical electrical equipment for ten years now.

There's some special education specialized in medical equipment in Britain.Am I correct?

Hi Mike,

If you are intrested there is a HNC/HND medical electronics course at Colegsirgar in Carmarthenshire South Wales. www.colegsirgar.ac.uk


I think under afc, band 5 vacancies require a HNC/HND/Degree or equivalent.

For vacancies try IPEM and healthjobsuk

JJ, Mike,
Many technicians do not have medical experience, but they do have a recognised engineering qualification.

I have employed technicians technicians from other countries - but only if i am satisfied that their english is of an adequate standard (spoken and written) and their engineering qualifications are also equivalent to my expectations for the post. They have also had to go through a technical interview before being offered a position.

Hi.
You said technicians have an engineering qualification, do you mean they have a degree or just technical qualifications (a course in electronics for example)?
I have qualifications in electronics but i don't have a degree.
As for my english i don't think that could be a problem, still thus i'm always trying to improve it.
What kind of questions and subjects do you usually approach in a technical interview?
Best regards,
Miguel