Twenty years into a career with the fire service where he worked in operations, community fire safety, and as a fire service training instructor, Brendan Gerard Bowden decided that there was no time like the present to upskill.
Opting for a Bachelor of Engineering (BEng) in Fire Engineering at South East Technological University (SETU), the mature student went on to win Project of the Year 2022-23 in January of this year. Couple this achievement with a shortage of similarly qualified graduates and it was only a matter of time before prospective employers came calling.
Many serious fire-related incidences have brought the issue of good fire engineering practice into the public realm of late. There is now growing awareness of fire safety design and the requirement to have construction professionals trained in this area.
SETU's Bachelor of Engineering (BEng) in Fire Engineering has been designed to allow construction professionals from a wide array of backgrounds to upskill and gain a qualification in fire engineering.
Motivations
I chose SETU’s BEng in Fire Engineering as I wanted to improve my ability to work on complex, field-specific tasks within my role within the fire service. I also wanted to further my engineering and management skillset.
A wide variety of topics
The breadth of topics dealt with was excellent. I would advise students to be prepared for a wide range of subjects that may not initially appear to fit under the fire safety umbrella. For example, psychology plays a bigger role than I thought as it’s important to learn how humans behave in a fire. Other interesting topics include the built environment, fire science, fire safety regulation, management, legislative and technical knowledge. There were also mathematical equations to learn which are often required in fire safety evaluations.
Blended Approach
The class lecturers are professionals in their field and were excellent in the delivery of the blended lectures. The assessments were well prepared, and the course leader ensured he was at hand to answer most queries, especially at the start of the course as we navigated our way through libraries for document collection to aid in our study for Fire Safety Engineering technical and legislative requirements. As a mature student, it’s worth noting that registration was an easy process, and staff were at hand to answer any payment or springboard applications.
Project of the Year award
I was delighted to receive the Project of the Year 2022-23 award after completing the BEng at SETU. Winning that award was an incredible achievement and opportunity for me as I’ve since been offered employment at two different companies. I’m so grateful for the networking opportunities this course has given me.
Image: Brendan Gerard Bowden on his graduation from SETU, second from left, bottom row.