Engineers Ireland Conversion Course to fill vacancies in Galway area

EngIreland

Following the success of our recent pilot programme for ex-Dell workers, we are running another conversion programme for unemployed engineers.



This course is aimed at unemployed engineers of traditional disciplines (civil structural, mechanical etc) to convert their skills to work in medical device/pharma sector.


This course is run in conjunction with the Irish Medical Devices Association and Life Sciences Skillnet.


The course is aimed at filling vacancies for engineers and technicians in the Galway area.


Download application form - http://bit.ly/qK4Vus


A minimum Level 7 engineering qualification is required to take part.

Deadline for applications - 12pm 29th July 2011



For more information on the course - http://bit.ly/qzpguf

CatFromHue

is there information on how many people from the limerick program who went on to get a full time job?

EngIreland

Sorry don't have that info yet as they are still on their course. They have just begun the "work placement" element of the course.

CatFromHue

is it a paid work placement?
while i think this is a good idea and seems to have been implemented very well i dont think it can be called a success until the participants are getting paid/have a full time job.

Offy

EngIreland wrote: »

Following the success of our recent pilot programme for ex-Dell workers, we are running another conversion programme for unemployed engineers.



This course is aimed at unemployed engineers of traditional disciplines (civil structural, mechanical etc) to convert their skills to work in medical device/pharma sector.


This course is run in conjunction with the Irish Medical Devices Association and Life Sciences Skillnet.


The course is aimed at filling vacancies for engineers and technicians in the Galway area.


Download application form - http://bit.ly/qK4Vus


A minimum Level 7 engineering qualification is required to take part.

Deadline for applications - 12pm 29th July 2011



For more information on the course - http://bit.ly/qzpguf

What hours are involved? Do you have a venue? What cost is this program?

49801

I'd be interested to know how many hours a week are involved and what the cost is?

James 007

EngIreland, you have not replied to the two previous threads, Why?

EngIreland

Sorry folks, was out of the office since Friday.

• The course will take place in NUIG
• The course is free
• It will take place Mon - Friday, 9am to 5pm
• Placements will not be paid
• Full social welfare benefits are retained during training and placements

More info here on the programme - http://bit.ly/nOcweN

Hope this answers the above queries.

Don't forget, deadline to apply is this Friday.

Sorry again for the delay in responding.

Dilbert75

Looks like a great opportunity to me - even though I've been in the pharma and med device industries for the last 6 years, I reckon there's still loads of stuff that I'd find useful on it if I were able to participate. Well done to EI for taking the initiative on this.

Galwegian100

Hey EI, thank you I have sent in my application. I am a civil engineer looking to get into the med device/pharma sector so this course sounds good.

Can you let me know when you will be letting people know if they have got a place on the programme and when the start date is?

Also will there be any choice in which company you will be placed with? What are the chances of a placement in Galway area? Will placement be mon-fri, 9am-5pm format? and is there a good possibility of getting fulltime work after the programme?

Thank you

James 007

EngIreland wrote: »

Sorry folks, was out of the office since Friday.

• The course will take place in NUIG
• The course is free
• It will take place Mon - Friday, 9am to 5pm
• Placements will not be paid
• Full social welfare benefits are retained during training and placements

More info here on the programme - http://bit.ly/nOcweN

Hope this answers the above queries.

Don't forget, deadline to apply is this Friday.

Sorry again for the delay in responding.

Some of the unemployed engineers that I know are not on social welfare due to money they earned and saved previously.

Will they have to pay for the course?

EngIreland

No, there is still no charge for the course regardless of your social welfare situation.

@Galwegian10
As regards the possibility of getting full time work from the course, I would imagine that it will be due to the performance on the course and while on placement. (sorry dont mean to sound glib).
Vacancies will be in the Galway area but not sure if you or the company gets to choose your placement.
Will come back to you on your other queries once I get the info.

EngIreland

@Galwegian10

• Applicants will be informed if they have been successful within 2 weeks from next Tuesday.
• Telephone interviews start next week - Tuesday 2nd August
• The course will start by late August.
• As regards, choice of placement - it will be a combined effort to match with candidate with the company.
• The placement hours will be the company's working hours.
• As regards the chances of full employment - as mentioned above, will depend on the candidate's performance during the work placement. The placement will take place in a company that has a vacancy or vacancies.
• There are 25 places on this course and there has been over 75 applications received.

Hope this helps.

Best of luck to all who have applied.

49801

any advice for someone whom is in a position to start a 12 month level 9 Biomed course in the UK.

I would chose to stay in irl and do the conversion course if job prospects where significantly improved. But would feel pretty dumb if no job by jan/feb

am a bit unusual as my undergrad is biomedical but have taken a 2yr career break for personal reasons.

James 007

I wonder why FAS has not introduced such a course sooner for unemployed Engineers. Surely there is a demand for this conversion course for more than 25 places. After all the pharma industry is thriving at the moment.

godtabh

James 007 wrote: »

I wonder why FAS has not introduced such a course sooner for unemployed Engineers. Surely there is a demand for this conversion course for more than 25 places. After all the pharma industry is thriving at the moment.

You are talking about FAS. They have as much initiative as a greyhound. A useless organisation.

This scheme is a fantastic opperni toy for engineers and I say fair play to Engineers Ireland.

CatFromHue

I do think this is a great initiative and applaud Engineers Ireland for their forward thinking but until participants have secured paying jobs, I won't be calling it a success.

Pentax

Hi, I have just discovered this post and realize that I have missed the deadline, end of July, and was wondering if this course or one similar is planned for the near future.:D

49801

Pentax wrote: »

Hi, I have just discovered this post and realize that I have missed the deadline, end of July, and was wondering if this course or one similar is planned for the near future.:D

try applying immediately. it might not be too late yet.
i know there are 80/90 applicants for 25 places but if you are a strong applicant it may happen for you.

Offy

49801 wrote: »

Pentax wrote: »

Hi, I have just discovered this post and realize that I have missed the deadline, end of July, and was wondering if this course or one similar is planned for the near future.:D

try applying immediately. it might not be too late yet.
i know there are 80/90 applicants for 25 places but if you are a strong applicant it may happen for you.

What defines a strong applicant?

godtabh

CatFromHue wrote: »

I do think this is a great initiative and applaud Engineers Ireland for their forward thinking but until participants have secured paying jobs, I won't be calling it a success.

No job is a given so why would you only count a secured jobs a success. At the very least it gives people opportunities and I call that a success compared to anything any other organisation is doing for engineers at present.

49801

Offy wrote: »

What defines a strong applicant?

I can't define that for you. You need to find that out for yourself I'am afraid

CatFromHue

Well if the aim of the course is to train people to enable them to work in the medical/pharma sector it can only be considered a success when they're actually working in such sector.

At the moment the participants from the first program are on unpaid work placements. In effect providing free labour to a sector that has said it is crying out for engineers to fill job requirements. At the end of the work placement if no participant gets a job when we know there are jobs there I wouldn't call the program a success.

I still think it's a good idea from Engineer's Ireland but the whole Jobbridge and WPP scheme's run by FAS have left me sceptical of employers and unpaid placements.

Turbulent Bill

CatFromHue wrote: »

Well if the aim of the course is to train people to enable them to work in the medical/pharma sector it can only be considered a success when they're actually working in such sector.

At the moment the participants from the first program are on unpaid work placements. In effect providing free labour to a sector that has said it is crying out for engineers to fill job requirements. At the end of the work placement if no participant gets a job when we know there are jobs there I wouldn't call the program a success.

I still think it's a good idea from Engineer's Ireland but the whole Jobbridge and WPP scheme's run by FAS have left me sceptical of employers and unpaid placements.

The course should better position people to get a pharma job, but I think it's naive to expect a direct link between doing the course and getting a job. If nobody gets a job then it's definitely a failure, either of the course structure or the employers (assuming the students are fairly diverse).

I think there's an element of 'put up or shut up' to the employers too. They've complained about skills shortages, and will now get semi-trained free labour - if they don't respond to this then there's something fundamentally wrong.

I've no issue with unpaid placements once they're fixed (short) duration. After a while you should know whether someone is valuable and should be hired, or let go.

CatFromHue

No I don't think everyone should expect to get a job but it is the main point of the doing the course. From the first post from Eng Ireland:

"Following the success of our recent pilot programme for ex-Dell workers, we are running another conversion programme for unemployed engineers.

This course is aimed at unemployed engineers of traditional disciplines (civil structural, mechanical etc) to convert their skills to work in medical device/pharma sector.

This course is run in conjunction with the Irish Medical Devices Association and Life Sciences Skillnet."

My original point was it's too early to call the course a success as no one has found a job from it. An unpaid work placement is not a job, which is the stage the first participants are at now.

I do think short term work placements for people without the skills to get a job in their sector of choice isn't a bad idea. The WPP and Jobbridge are enabling employers to exploit people though, I did see an internship on Jobbridge requiring the potential intern to have 3 years experience! While these are different things run by different bodies I've become sceptical of unpaid work placements/internships due to the WPP/Jobbridge exploitation. Hence I wouldn't call this scheme a success just yet. I really do hope it becomes one though.

49801

when will the first group(dell workers) that are in this program finishing their 6month placements?
When will we know how many of them are in paying jobs and how many are being retained by the placement company?

I've been told that 4 out of the 25 have so far gained salary roles.

king_m

Just wondering is there any people here that got on to the Galway course and what do they think of it so far?