Transport Operations & Technology in DIT

Jack175

Please excuse me if I have posted in the wrong section as I am relatively new to the forum.

I am a 6th year student who is also a public transport enthusiast and I recently found out about the Transport Operations & Technology course available in DIT. Does anyone know anything about this course? Apart from the details on the institute website, obviously. I'm not really all that into road vehicles and their workings and it seems like that's a big part of the course so I'm not too sure. There's a couple of modules on rail which I'd definitely be interested in, but the road vehicles.. ehh not so much. So does anyone know what this course is actually like and could give me a few pointers? Or even alternatives.

Thank you! (Apologies if in the wrong section)

sdanseo

Graduate of this course - although take my advice with the caveat that for a number of reasons, including some disaffection with the course, I only simply passed the degree at honours level.

The disinterest in road vehicles was something I felt very much as well, and although funny enough I now happen to be working in roadfreight, there are plenty of people who've come out of this course and entered different sectors. I know three who have entered the aviation industry as crew and schedule co-ordinators, one who became a timetable planner in Irish Rail, and others who've gone on to roadfreight as well which is the inevitable majority in a country like ours.

I felt the course was unevenly biased towards road and specifically road freight for that reason. Two thirds, if not more, of the modules are this way inclined, with only one module a year going towards sea, air or aviation. The rest are more general subjects like management, IT, communications and they tended to be the ones I did better at.

Don't let that sound like it's not a good course; it is - the lecturers are down to earth and very helpful, class sizes are small so learning is much more interactive and there is a good deal of banter and opportunity for questions which really helps - especially for those less inclined to attend every lecture (ahem).

As I said I'm now in the road sector and actually thoroughly enjoying it, but I think my main interests for career progression would be in transport planning or management, either in rail or aviation. This degree will get you to that, but it's a roundabout way of doing it - I think getting a 2.1 or 1.1 in this course, with a masters then in something like aviation management, would be a great route to take if you were interested in aviation for example. If as you say you're leaning away from road freight - it's worth considering alternatives.

Jamie2k9

Open day 2 and 3 December, should go along if interested.