Hi,  

I would say look at the course content, and how the course is taught, I did my HND a looooong time ago, so my experience may not be up to date or relevant, but in the day the HND/C was more practical based than Academic like the degree or masters.   For those that jumped over from the HND to the second year degree, it was a large jump especially in Maths.

I never went on to the degree, just worked my way up from a year machining into Design, and eventually into Design management, and to Company board management.  I became Chartered a few years ago, and for the last10 years I changed tac, and went into Buisness system, PLM and Digital thread management, implementation and Architecture,  so a switch from Meccie to Software.

so my advice it to think about how you learn best, and see which courses fit best you.   You can Start with HND/HNC and move onto degree and masters, that will get you to where you want to get to faster, but look into apprentice degrees, as having access to practical experience by working in your chosen field will keep the costs down, and get you secure employment sooner.

Ash.

I second the advice from Ash: think hard about a student apprenticeship. I'm sure that colleagues will correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe that about half of the candidates for professional registration rely on work based learning rather than academic qualifications to demonstrate their underlying knowledge and understanding 

I second the advice from Ash: think hard about a student apprenticeship. I'm sure that colleagues will correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe that about half of the candidates for professional registration rely on work based learning rather than academic qualifications to demonstrate their underlying knowledge and understanding