Renewable & Electrical Energy Systems, LIT

rta13

Hey, read through the posts about the renewable and electrical energy systems course in LIT. Seems to be very mixed reviews. Ive just been offered a place as a mature student on the course for next year. Im currently working abroad tho and Im afraid of packing up everything here and regretting the decision to go back and do it. If anybody has any more information or an opinion on it I'd love to hear it, thanks.

BrianL

First off congrats on getting offered the place.Secondly unfortunately the views on the other thread are correct.I just completed fourth year last week and while the same could be said about every course the jobs aren't there in the renewable sector,I really have no idea what's next for me to be honest.The main source of renewable energy here is wind and there is probably a handful of guys monitoring all the wind farms in Munster .

I presume you're an electrician as usually the mature students have a trade of some sort.I would say all of the electricians that were in the course are going to immigrate and go back to working as electricians to be honest even though most of them got distinctions.To tell you about the course it isn't all about renewable you will have one subject dedicated to renewable and a range of other subjects from Thermodynamics to Autocad ,the subject you'd probably be able to get a job in is in the PLC side of the course that you learn about in 3rd and 4th year.However in my opinion the Automation course (that mature students can apply to 2nd year also) you learn a lot more about the PLC side of things compared to the renewable.It's a tougher course from what I'm told but it's the course you're a lot more likely to get a job out of compared to the renewable.

As for the course itself if you decide to do it, prepare for a lot of assignments.Second year I think there is 7 different subjects.You will have around 10 assignments to do along with Christmas exams that count towards your continuous assessment, which will go towards your final year mark.Ending the year with Summer exams which are approximately 70% of the marks of the year.Third year is a lot more trickier you will have a final year project (worth two subjects) to complete.You will have five subjects and five assignments to do up till Christmas with the results going towards what degree you get (Distinction,2.1,2.2 etc) and after Christmas there's five new subjects and five assignments.It's the same for fourth year if you choose to do it a good few lads left after getting their Level 7 degree.

If you're adamant on doing the course best of luck to you.Any student that put in a bit of effort seemed to do fine in it.I would take a look at the Automation course as talking to a few of the matures they would of preferred to do that.Only thing I will say to you is if you are going back to college,if you haven't done maths in a while you might what to brush up on it.As a few of the matures hadn't done any maths since their apprenticeship and struggled with it a bit,the lecturers expect you to have an idea of the maths already.As for the lecturers a mixed bag really some good,some bad,some know the course inside out if you ask them any question they'd answer you immediately but can't really convey the subject well.While others they don't seem to know what they're doing but tell you what's likely to come up in the exam .I guess it's the same for every course.

rta13

Well thanks for the reply brian. Fair play on finishing the course anyway and best of luck finding work from it.

Its dissapointing to hear i must say. So you reckon even for someone willing to travel abroad its unlikely they´d find work in the renewable sector with it? I heard of Ireland making an agreement to supply something like 20% of britains energy through wind turbines. That construction would be starting in a few years but i havent seen anymore about it. Also here in Germany renewable energy is huge, the eu has plans for all countries to supply around 20% of their own energy needs using renewables so maybe it will get bigger in the future.

BrianL

Apologies RTA,I misconstrued your query I presumed you were moving back to Ireland to do a college course in order to get a job here.Of course if you're willing to travel there will always be work.There were recruitment agencies looking for graduates from the course based in the UK however can't say the graduate wages would be too healthy which was a major stumbling block for fellow students applying for it. I'd say you'd know more than me regarding the job opportunities in Germany since you're based there.But you'd always get in somewhere if you're willing to travel .

As for the Renewable here there can be issues with planning permission and could take up to 8 years for a wind farm from planning permission to completion.The most job opportunities coming from a wind farm being installed would be on the building of the turbines themselves as a laborer etc so I really don't think it would result with an influx of positions for "Wind Energy Consultants".If there were jobs I really don't know how you would get taken on without experience as most of the jobs I see regarding renewable require you to have 5+ years experience but I could be wrong. I remember not too long after I started the course the lecturer informed the class that if we try to make a career out of renewable it wont be in Ireland (which wasn't exactly encouraging :P).It could be a case of right place right time for you if you did the course and graduated you seem to be keen about it and have looked into a bit so I reckon you have your mind made up.


Only advice I'd give you is just work hard in third/fourth year to get a distinction as our lecturer told us they're currently 70 in third year at the moment and they presume around 10-12 will get a distinction (over 70% average) so it's what will set you out for the rest.You probably seen it already,just in case you haven't but here's a link to the course you can ask questions about the course at the bottom of the page and a lecturer will answer it,mind you they might be a biased about it :P.You can always email the lecturer as well which is on the page also and ask him how many graduates have found jobs from it as it's a big decision for you to up sticks and move back so I hope you get the answers you're after.

http://www.lit.ie/Courses/LC278

Best of luck with it whatever you do!