Over the decades the UK and EU have become less and less viable for manufacturing and especially electronics.
The younger generations of students , even in STEM, enginering, have littyle hands on experience or incentive.
They think a vedeo will tech then a complex field like PSU design or reliabilitry.
Berxit, Govt regs, energy costs and high freingt costs have killed the business of electronics and especially PS mfg in UK and EU. USA went long ago.
Just my thoughts,
Jon
Talking to a friend at the weekend who works as a maintenance engineer in industry, and his take on this is in agreement with Jon.
He says that a younger guy he works with is taking a vocational course to become an electrician that is being paid for by his company. This person is very keen to succeed, and is doing very well regards test grades, but it is mostly down to a great deal of effort to self teach on the part of this student, the course only appears to be teaching domestic electrical work, with very little industrial/distribution content in the syllabus, which it is supposed to cover
The really astounding thing is that during his last year the tutor has gone missing with no explanation and no replacement!
This is Norwich City College to keep things topical, I'm prepared to call this one out because its 100 genuine and its letting people down, though I do hear horror stories about other institutions.
After a few weeks an administrator was sent to sit in so that the course could continue, with the students learning solely from text books and you tubers!
Now, the likes of Dave Jones and John Ward are excellent educators in their fields but FFS its not them who are being paid for this course.
Further, as the course is vocational, and those attending are basically job apprentices, there is no hands on practical training done at college
whatsoever.
The thing is, further education in the UK is so expensive for students to go into, plus its quality and relevance being so poor, its no surprise to me when I'm told that a student from Bangalore who achieves an AMIE is a better rounded candidate for a job than a UK student who achieved a B Tech equivalent.
Things have really gone down the shitter in the last 10 years IMHO.
As for the OP question is it worthwhile? I make my living out of the work, but I'd agree the pond is getting smaller.
~~~~~~~
To the OP.
You do start some off beat threads, but credit where its due some of the side discussions that are brought up are first rate
(Soup and chef's salad today please)
Apologies for the rant and poor grammar, I'm a product of the British education system myself
Regards,
Xena.