Engineering – Patrick
Former Engineering student Patrick O’Connor studied a Level 3 course in Manufacturing Engineering followed by a HNC in Mechanical Engineering, both at Rotherham College. Patrick is now an Advanced Manufacturing Engineer at Nikken Kosakusho Europe, a manufacturer of tool holders and attachments based at the Advanced Manufacturing Park in Rotherham.
Patrick began his studies on a Level 3 Manufacturing Engineering course before deciding to stay within Rotherham College and progress onto studying towards a HNC. Patrick said,
“I would recommend Rotherham College to anyone. There’s a wealth of knowledge from the tutors and the facilities on offer are fantastic.
The knowledge I gained whilst studying at Rotherham College, particularly studying materials science and the properties of materials, is extremely valuable in the job that I do now.“
Patrick is now an Advanced Manufacturing Engineer, with varied responsibilities, including programming customer projects, visiting customers externally and completing solid modeling.
Patrick O’Connor, Level 3 and HNC in Engineering“I’d recommend Rotherham College to anyone, especially for Engineering, as the tutors are time-served engineers so they know a lot about the industry and they can offer a lot of support.”
Patrick explains,
“The engineering industry is perfect for me, every item you look at in day-to-day life has some form of engineering behind it. I’ve always been a person who likes to understand how something is made.
There’s no set day when you work in engineering, it’s not your regular 9-5 job, but that is a massive selling point for me and I reason why I love being an engineer. It’s an exciting industry to work in.”
Patrick offers tips on how to get your career off to the best start – he advises,
“Engineering is so diverse so ask as many questions as you can and draw on the experience of those around you. Also, if there are opportunities for work experience then do as many of those opportunities you can. A massive part of engineering is networking because it’s an industry like a small family, so it’s always helpful to be meeting new people.
The South Yorkshire region has just about every sub-sector of Engineering you could wish for, medical, oil and gas, motorsport, massive aerospace OEM manufacturers, literally every sub-sector you could imagine is here in South Yorkshire.
My advice to anyone thinking of studying Engineering is to just do it. It’s a brilliant industry to be a part of with a lot of opportunities.”
