After working the majority of my life in sales for a liquor company, at 29 I'm wanting to start a mechanical engineering degree as a mature age student. A few friends from high school became mechanical engineers and absolutely love it, which originally picqued my interest. Then of course as I became more of a fan of motorsport, my interest in engineering increased. After deciding on a career change and beginning work for an export company a few months ago, I've had a few discussions with our ports improvement project manager, who has made me realise that an engineering degree as a mature age student is not something I should discount as being impossible.
However, it is quite difficult to determine what course of action to take. I cannot afford just yet to quit my job and study full time, so ideally I would like to begin by studying part time while still working at my current employment but doing night shifts during semesters. However in the future it may be quite possible to finish off the last year or possibly the last 2 years as a full time student only.
Going off my grades and subjects in high school (studied advanced economics, business and legal instead of advanced maths and science) I cannot simply enroll in a course (I never expected this to be the case though). A university I have talked to - University of Queensland - have informed me the only way I can get in is to start off an arts degree and try to take units that would count as pre reqs for bachelor of engineering, although I would still have to study units related only to the arts degree as well. Not ideal as it's going to take me awhile as a part time student, but if that's the case then that's not really the end of the world. (I should also mention that UQ have a formula SAE program which I would want to be involved in if it was possible)
Another option is enrolling in an apparently less reputable - but still ok - uni (iniversity of southern qld) which offer engineering by correspondence. I would also have to do a bridging course in the required maths and physics. Don't get me wrong - I'm not trying to get out of learning the maths and physics pre reqs - in fact it's the opposite.
Yet another option is through a contact I received from the project manager at my employment. Had a chat to him yesterday and am waiting for a reply to my email next week. I believe he does a lot of training for people in the industry who have a lot of experience but no degree, such as the above mentioned project manager (I quite enjoy hearing about grad students that come in and give him their "professional opinion as an engineer" of which "he is not because he does not have a degree.' Unfortunately their professional opinion costs $600k and 3 months over budget - and won't work anyway
![:lol:](https://bb2.autosport.com/public/style_emoticons/default/lol.gif)
Anyway I believe he is quite heavily involved with the mining industry (he also was once a lecturer I believe) and may try to steer me towards studying mining engineering. The money is incredible (grads can earn 90 to 100k straight away) and it is quite possible to have vacation work for a mining company which would allow me possibly to study full time then. However... it is probably a mistake just to study mining engineering over mechanical just because of the money, unless it is possible to still have pathways into mechanical engineering areas with a degree in mining engineering. In that case it may not be a bad way at all to obtain a degree. And I wouldn't have a problem with working in mining sites as many do.
Doing a mechanical engineering degree and being employed in the motorsport community would be a dream come true for me, and something I would be more than willing to become involved in regardless of the hours, pay or location (which says a lot to me), although I'm not so naive as to think it will be possible - I realise that I would have about as much chance becoming an astronaught in Australia (an austronaught?).
So realistically, the main objective is to become a mechanical or mining engineer, starting off with bridging courses, then studying part time with the aim of full time study for the last year or 2.
Anyone with any advice or who has ever done engineering as a mature age student would be hugely appreciated.
I live in Brisbane, Australia, but am married to a Swedish gal, which would possibly make study and employment in Europe a possibility. Open to any suggestions and advice as I'm sure there are a lot of engineers on this board!
Thanks in advance,
Matt.