HNC Course

[SJ1888]

Well I have been accepted for the HNC route in September.

I'm just curiouse though, why have I been put on the HNC course when I have the qualifications for the HND.

What's the difference in the 2 courses, do both routes end up with the same qualifications? Or will I have to return to college for the HND.

Any help will do, just a little confused, thanks

[dawg]

Re: HNC Course

HNC in what? at where?!

Is it this one?
http://www.gcns.ac.uk/courses/15_hnc_ma ... _cadetship

I think it's just a legacy course technicality... you are effectively on the HND route, but in engineering there are many careers where a HNC is a normal qualification; e.g.: http://www.tees.ac.uk/colu/

So the idea is that it gives you the option of dropping out with a qualification halfway through, which you wouldn't really have as an option on a FdEng.

That's my tuppence worth

[steamer]

Re: HNC Course

Depending on your aptitude, you will be entered onto the HND. It's a way of ensuring that you don't fail. At the end of the day, you're going to college for a CoC and the academic qualification is there to justify universities training you-don't worry about it, and when the time comes, top it up afterwards.

[SJ1888]

Re: HNC Course

I must admit I was a little bit worried, I'm doing the deck officer course at GCNS.

[size4riggerboots]

Re: HNC Course

They're phasing out the HND course and replacing it with the HNC course, the other option is the FD course. The difference with the FD course is that you do all the theory up to Mates ticket level and therefore don't have to go back and do SQAs when you want to progress your ticket rank. With the HND, which will be replaced with the HNC, you only do up to OOW ticket level theory and so have to go back to college for about 9 months to do the next level of theory when you want to go up a rank.

[Andy_S]

Re: HNC Course

What level is a BSc course up to then?

[dawg]

Re: HNC Course



Basically, a HNC is more or less equivalent to Year 1 of a Bachelor degree; HND equates to Year 2, with BSc, BA, BEng as Year 3.

However, this already confusing issue has been successfully made even more confusing, since they moved HNC up from "level 4" to "level 5".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Q ... _Framework

Why we need all these variations of qualifications is a mystery to me.

[size4riggerboots]

Re: HNC Course

Lovely diagram Tron :P

You can turn an FD course in a BSc if you do another year at uni, though you can't do it at the college, well Fleetwood anyway, can't speak for the others.

It feels like the tutors are all convinced that what we really want to do is do yet another year in education and then stay ashore, every time I say I'm here to get my ticket and go to sea they look knowlegeably at me and say "Oh you'll change your mind". Patronising twats. ( Did I just say that out loud??)

[Andy_S]

Re: HNC Course

I had a tip off that CMA CGM send their cadets to Plymouth to do the BSc degree. Years 1 and 2 at uni then year 3 full-time at sea, then year 4 back at uni. Or something like that! 8-)

[dawg]

Re: HNC Course

Lovely diagram Tron :P
Patronising twits. ( Did I just say that out loud??)

You did! And you win a chocolate starfish for beating the rude word filter! Now wash your mouth out!

I reckon many of those ancient mariners lost a girl to another in their time away at sea, and so thats why they tend to gone about the "golden age" being gone, and you need a shore job.
Yeah, like I want to commute for 2 hrs a day, to get a third of my wages taxed, and live in a cramped soggy overpriced house in Blighty for the rest of my days... "****ing thick ****s!" (aggressively testing the rude word filter there )

[Steve]

Re: HNC Course

I had a tip off that CMA CGM send their cadets to Plymouth to do the BSc degree. Years 1 and 2 at uni then year 3 full-time at sea, then year 4 back at uni. Or something like that! 8-)

Hopefully they send you to sea before the third year. The first sea phase always has a high attrition rate as the pansies get weeded out.

Back in my day (groan!) the first college phase was all of six weeks long, basically just enough to get the compulsory firefighting, first aid, etc. certificates and learn what to call the pointy and blunt ends of a ship. No point wasting time and money on cadets at college if they are going to bum out after their first real experience of life at sea.

[size4riggerboots]

Re: HNC Course

They don't give much away about training on their website certainly, but they're french, so....

As for most cadetships, the HND do 6 or 8 weeks at college before being packed off to sea, and I think it works the same for the HNC.

FD get 5 loooong months at college before getting to try it out for real. We lost 1 at the end of the course and 2 more in the sea phase. I reckon it would be much better to give people a taste of life at sea sooner rather than later, but I'm only a cadet who's going through it right now, what would I know??

[effiestephy]

Re: HNC Course

I've been put down as doing the Professional Diploma (Foundation Degree) in September, if I pass higher maths at C or above. Can anyone tell me what sort of maths is involved in the Professional Diploma? Is it like a level up from Higher?

[dawg]

Re: HNC Course

What format do you want the answer in?! A list of mathetmatical subject areas? A couple of recommended books?

I imagine for a deck cadet, trig, stats, algebra and heavy arithmetic? Probably no need for Calculus or Mechanics.

Dunno really. :dur:

[Steve]

Re: HNC Course

I can't speak with certainty about the PD course, but I would characterise the maths on the old HND course as largely Standard Grade level. There is some spherical trigonometry involved, but that isn't even taught at Advanced Higher level AFAIK. Most of the time it's really just a case of plugging numbers into formulae. You get given a formula sheet so you just need to select the right formula and know which numbers go where, be able to rearrange a formula, that kind of thing. No quadratic equations or differentiation or any of the other fun stuff from Higher.