Looking For a relevant EE Prof. development course to spend about £3000 on.

[edisonobilly]

Hello Everyone,

I have been reading this blog for quite a while now. I am currently struggling with an issue and I think this is one of the few places i can find good advice on what to do.

I started an electronics design and development job roughly 18 months ago, just after I graduated from university in the UK (BEng. Mechatronics). I have had previous digital electronics background. I knew very little about analogue electronics before the job, but so far I have learnt a lot. I also have good mechanical engineering background as well.

my job involves the redesign of mixed signal modules that connect to a main system. so there is a  lot of analogue skill involved as well as digital and programming.

I had some money put aside for my personal development when I started this job. I have already WELL spent some on non-engineering things like project management and general management skill development etc. I have got about £3000 left. I have been thinking of some engineering short course, some thing that I could do that will not only improve my knowledge in electronics design, but improve my cv for future job prospects. If I don't come up with something by the end of next week, the money will be gone, as in, not available for my development anymore.

Although I have learnt a lot on the current job, I still feel very incompetent in analogue electronics as I have only touched the areas related to what I have worked on. Please allow me to list a few skills that I already have, just so you have an idea on how to advice me.

1) I use altium designer quite comfortably at work as my main EDA software.

2) I have a very good understanding of microcontroller architecture and computer hardware.

3) I have good programming skills. C for programming microcontrollers that i work with(ARM, AVR, 8051 based) and just good
enough VB.net to allow me design desktop application, for configuring the hardware that i design through usb etc. I am slowly using C# for
newer desktop apps that i write for hardware control or configuration.(i could use some more desktop App development skill)

4)I have good mechanical design skills, although not in my current job description, it comes in handy a lot of times.I had been a CAD designer in a previous job (Solidworks, Solidedge etc. during uni work placement), and i had studied mechanical engineering before the mechatronics BEng. (long story). a future job that involves mechanical design is very likely for me, so i could use some more development in this area.

I am sure that there are other areas of electronics product design, analog or digital that I currently am not aware of, but I will someday stumble upon and wish I had done a course to acquaint me of it.

I am looking at short courses of any sort(online or otherwise) that will add to my knowledge as an electronics product designer, in this current age of technology that we live in, something not only that employers will find attractive, but will enable me handle future electronics design projects much easier.

I will appreciate any suggestion, even if it exceeds the £3000 budget specified, at least I have something to work towards, in my further professional development.

Thanks to everyone, for any contribution to this.

[EEVblog]

Perhaps CID or CID+ certification in PCB design. Sounds impressive to those management types.

[tggzzz]

The key point is to make a guess as to where you want to be in 2 years and 5 years time, then work out what you need to do to get there. That will very significantly prune the number of courses for you to consider. Possible choices: moving up the greasy pole in to management, staying technical (subchoice: broad or narrow skillset), gaining professional qualifications, e.g. MIET. If you don't know (which is perfectly reasonable at your career stage) then the key questions become "what do I have to do to find out what I want to do?", or "how can I dabble in different things  that I might want to do?".

Consider whether you want a 1 day/week residential course, or a remote long-term course (e.g OU or Coursera).

I guess you work for a large organisation; if so your managers/peers and or HR (spit) might be able to point to courses that people have done before.

Consider approaching whatever professional body you belong to, and seeing what pointers they can offer. In the UK that is probably going to be the IET; they are very hot on continuing professional development. In addition they offer mentoring schemes.

Sorry there I've only given you questions, not answers. Hopefully the questions will lead you the the answer that is right for you.