My name is Richard Scheerer. I am the Head of Technical Continuing Education at the BZWU. I manage all the technical courses and degree programs that we offer as continuing education at our school. This also includes the HF Mechanical Engineering course.
The HF Mechanical Engineering is a classic course of study that originated in the mechanical engineering industry. The target group for this HF course are polymechanics or design engineers who wish to complete a part-time course. In comparison to training at a university of applied sciences, most graduates of this course continue to work as normal on the side and go to school at the weekend or in the evening.
The HF mechanical engineering degree has more professional practice with the tertiary level B degree, as the student continues to work in the company while attending the higher technical college. Students at the university of applied sciences who complete a Bachelor's degree are mostly studying at school. For the second option, however, a vocational baccalaureate or a HF mechanical engineering degree is required. The two courses have different specializations. This allows a future employer to consider whether they need more theoretical competence or practical competence combined with theoretical knowledge for the position to be filled. In terms of degree level, it no longer makes too much of a difference, as can be seen in many job advertisements where both degrees are mentioned in one sentence. However, there is a difference between Bachelor's and Master's degrees.
There are two different admission requirements for the HF Mechanical Engineering:
The content of the HF Mechanical Engineering degree course is geared towards a future career as a project manager, design engineer or development manager. This mainly includes:
After completing their studies, HF mechanical engineering technicians (since 25.10.22 HF mechanical engineering technicians) should be able to assess the customer's requirements and design and develop an optimal solution in such a way that the customer's needs are taken into account and the proposed solution is also economically interesting for all parties involved.
At the BZWU, we try to make the importance of customer involvement clear to HF mechanical engineering students in addition to design, calculation and CAD design. This is very important. Logically, a design engineer is expected to be able to design. However, what many designers are not good enough at as thinkers or "tinkerers", and this is where we at BZWU would like to apply leverage, is taking customer needs into account and presenting solutions to the customer. For us, a large part of the training is: HF mechanical engineering technicians should ensure that the work performed and the understanding of it is also received by the customer.
The people behind the implementation of the federal requirements through a regulated framework curriculum from the federal government into a practice-oriented training program all have years of practical experience in the industry and therefore know what employers want and what makes a good mechanical engineer and how they can differentiate themselves.
The HF Mechanical Engineering course is a seven-semester course and therefore lasts three and a half years. In our special schooling model, students study on Friday evenings and all day Saturday. This means that they are fully available to the company during the week. The costs amount to around CHF 2,600 per semester including teaching materials. Cantonal subsidies are already included in this price.
No, the minimum employment required by the regulations for HF mechanical engineering is 50% work activity. Hardly anyone works that little. However, I recommend that students make flexible arrangements with their employer. In other words, you can agree to work 80%, 90% or even 100%. You can then work this workload flexibly - i.e. work less if your studies require more time and vice versa. A full-time workload is also possible thanks to our training days.
The HF Mechanical Engineering course is a diploma course consisting of three levels. The basic level includes pre-diploma examinations, the module level with diploma examinations and the diploma thesis. Students who complete and pass all the preliminary stages and also successfully complete the diploma thesis are awarded the degree of qualified technician HF mechanical engineering (now mechanical engineering technician HF).
The diploma thesis is a practical piece of work that deals with a current task set by a company. A solution is developed and, wherever possible, a prototype is built. The developments are presented and approved by experts at the BZWU, but are also put into operation on site. Like the entire course, the dissertation is very practical and hands-on. Much of it takes place in the company and is practical, action-oriented rather than theoretical.
The BZWU has its origins in a technical vocational school and we have the technical expertise in-house. This naturally also has an impact on our higher vocational training courses, such as the HF Mechanical Engineering. Many things such as infrastructure and specialist knowledge can be adapted there. Our networks and the transfer of practical experience through lecturers, various specialists from different fields and practical examples also have an impact. This creates special experiences for our students that are usually not possible in other schools. Our class sizes are limited to enable intensive and active study. This ensures good class cohesion in HF Mechanical Engineering and a good network later on. These things make the BZWU unique.
The HF Mechanical Engineering course is mainly held in Uzwil. This is because all technical courses and basic technical training are based here. This is because the major industrial companies in Eastern Switzerland are also based in Uzwil. The school building is modern and easily accessible. There are also free parking spaces. These circumstances are greatly appreciated by our students.
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