Guto Jones

What motivated you to study for an online Engineering Management Postgraduate Certificate course?

I graduated with an Aerospace Engineering degree from Swansea University and as part of my grad scheme, which is three years long, I wanted to gain extra qualifications as early as possible in my career. I thought that now was the perfect time to complete the qualification, whilst I have some time on my hands; and before going into a full-time role after my graduate scheme.

So, you said your graduate scheme is three years; did you go into that straight from your undergraduate degree?

The graduate scheme is three years, due to finish this September. However, I have been fortunate enough to land myself a job at the start of this year, meaning I have finished the graduate scheme about six months early. It has all tied in nicely with completing my Postgraduate Certificate and getting a role all at the same time. And the Engineering Management course is relevant to the role I am doing so everything has fallen into place for me.

And what is that role that you have managed to gain?

The role is a Project Engineer in the Military Value Stream.

If you could pick out one key moment during your studies that made you feel most proud or happy that you chose to do this course, what was it?

One of the modules I studied before Christmas was Business Strategy for Engineers, which was centred around strategic choices in an Engineering Management setting. At the time of the module, I was in a strategy placement as part of my graduate scheme making it relevant. The work and study going hand in hand enabled me to achieve a good grade in the module too, which was a bonus. Having everything tied in together made it that much easier for me.

How would you describe your experience of online learning with Leeds?

Many of my work colleagues are doing block learning, so every six weeks they will be released to work towards a qualification which is quite intense. However, I chose the online option with Leeds so that I can tackle my learning in small chunks in my own time to keep my work-life and academic balance in check.

Tell us about the support you received during your studies?

My Student Success Advisor was always quick to respond to any questions I may have and is a great first point of contact, meaning that I have not had to liaise with the module tutors as much outside of the scheduled learning time.

You have kind of already covered this as you mentioned you have already landed yourself a role. But what difference is this course going to make to your career?

A lot of the literature that we study within the course and the tools we come across, theory-wise, we use in our job roles. So, understanding the theory and why we are using the tools that we are learning about on the course in practice becomes a lightbulb moment! A lot of the tools we used on the Managing Major Engineering Projects module, such as Risk Registers and various matrixes, I am using daily in my role. I am therefore again in a situation where my module and my work go hand in hand, making it so much easier for me to draw links and understand.

Would you recommend this course to other students? If so, why?

Yes definitely. I would probably aim it at people that have a couple of years of work experience under their belt. I think having some industry experience goes well with the literature and theory that you learn on the course. Being able to fall back on and use my professional experiences has helped me a lot.

What advice would you give to someone considering studying an online Postgraduate Certificate course with Leeds?

Due to the continuous learning characteristic of the course that I mentioned earlier, I would tell people to allocate some time during the week to complete activities and do each lesson within the module. I would put some time aside on the weekends when you can and stay in contact with your Student Success Advisor as much as possible.