Higher National Certificate

EES Higher National Certificate Course in Electrical Engineering. Two years, day-release. This course provides the technical education required for senior technicians employed in the electrical installation industry. 

Hargreaves book, which is primarily intended for Higher National Certificate and Bachelor of Science students, presents thermodynamic functions in a pictorial way. Mahan s elementary book is clearly written and gives a classical account of thermodynamic laws, with entropy introduced as a macroscopic quantity. Jancel s book, on the other hand, is highly mathematical and will probably be of interest only to those concerned with the foundations of statistical mechanics. 

A Higher National Certificate (HNC) can be taken two years after A level or Ordinary National Certificate in chemistry, physics and mathematics by part-time study only. This is a professional qualification of pass degree standard and of national status. At the same level, somewhat lower than Graduate Membership of the RTC or an honours degree but with a broader basis, is the Higher National Diploma in chemistry or applied chemistry which is usually taken as a three-year sandwich course from A level or ONC, or sometimes as a two-year full-time course. Particulars can be obtained from the Secretary to the Joint Committee for National Certificates in Chemistry, 30 Russell Square, London, W.C.l. 

Thermodynamics, like classical music, is an acquired taste. The initiation must be sensitively carried out, otherwise the mathematical rigour, like the formal structure of the music, acts to discourage a deeper relationship. It is sad but hue that some students, both of thermodynamics and of Bach, never recover from the initial shock. In this, we are all losers. In this book, therefore, I have tried to present thermodynamics in a way which uses little mathematics, but which includes many practical and lively examples. I hope it will provide a basis for an introductory course at Honours Degree level, and will also suffice for Higher National Diploma and Certificate students. 

Now, to reach the standard of ability in required subjects for entry into a specific Oxford course via an entrance, scholarship examination, the candidates were restricted by their schools to subjects suitable for Oxford sub-faculty courses describable in terms of Higher School Certificate or Advanced school examinations (A-levels) as follows fundamental mathematics, with a physical science, only for mathematicians advanced mathematics and physics for physicists mathematics (at a lower level), physics and chemistry for chemists. All Arts subjects were virtually outside a science course from age 15 to 18 and no examination results in biological subjects were in general acceptable to these sub-faculties and so were excluded for aspiring school chemists. These restrictions are much less marked today but they characterised attitudes in the chemistry school for many a year. The requirement of having passed a national test in Latin was only removed in 1960. 

The contents cover in outline the syllabus for the National General Certificate level examination of the National Examination Board in Occupational Safety and Health and of the requirements for the Working Safely and Managing Safely Certificates sponsored by the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health. It should also prove a useful aide-memoire for those studying for higher level health and safety examinations. 

Program reviews by external experts include regional and national accreditations, institutional reviews, and certification or approval ratings from engineering professional associations. For example, in Sweden, programs are reviewed by the Swedish National Agency for Higher Education. A description of a recent review is found in Box 9.3 in a later section of this chapter. 

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