Engineering - Level 3 National Extended Diploma

Essentials

Duration: 2 Years Full-time
Start date: 2nd September 2024
End date: 6th June 2026
Information Event: Yes

Course fee: FREE (Eligibility criteria may apply)

• 1080 Guided Learning Hours (1475 Total Qualification Time).
• Equivalent in size to three A Levels.
• 15 units of which 7 are mandatory and 3 are external.
• Mandatory content (56%).
• External assessment (33%).

Course Content

This qualification has been designed as a two-year, full-time course that meets entry requirements for learners wanting to progress to employment in engineering. Learners gain relevant skills and knowledge from studying a range of content focused on electrical/electronic and mechanical disciplines, for example, programmable logic controllers and manufacturing computer numerical control machining processes. Progression could be either directly to employment in Level 3 job roles, higher apprenticeship programmes or via higher education courses in engineering.

Throughout both years of study, the students undertake practical workshop activities to enhance the theoretical studies undertaken. If you are accepted onto this course without a Grade C or above in Maths and/or English, you will be required to complete the relevant Essential Skills qualification. This will be a compulsory part of your timetable.

Year 1 Units

• Engineering Principles*
• Delivery of Engineering Processes Safely as a Team
• Applied Commercial and Quality Principles in Engineering  
• Microcontroller Systems for Engineers*
• Computer Aided Design in Engineering 
• Electronic Printed Circuit Board Design and Manufacture
• Manufacturing Secondary Machining Processes

Year 2 Units

• Product Design and Manufacture*
• A Specialist Engineering Project
• Calculus to Solve Engineering Problems
• Further Engineering Mathematics
• Three Phase Electrical Systems
• Mechanical Measurement & Inspection Technology
• Programmable Logic Controllers
• Manufacturing Computer Numerical Control Machining Processes
• Industrial Robotics
• Sustainable Transport

*Externally assessed

Course Update

Please note from September 2025, all Ballymena courses are planned to move to the new Ballymena campus at Farm Lodge.

Applicants should have at least 4 GCSE's at Grade C or above including Maths and one other STEM subject.

A Level 2 BTEC Extended Certificate or Diploma in Engineering with Merit grade in Maths for Engineering and satisfactory performance in any externally examined units will be considered.  In circumstances where there are more applications for the course than there are places available, the College reserves the right to select candidates by enhancing the criteria to consider higher grades or achievement in STEM subjects.

• HND or Foundation Degree (full-time)
• Higher Level Apprenticeship (with Foundation Degree studies)
• Employment (with Higher Education studies)
• Degree courses in Engineering