I'm a fully qualified industrial spark with 14 years experience and did my apprenticeship with ford motor company so I'm not talking out of my arse when I say that manufacturing in this country is absolutely fucking dead in the water.if you want to get into the engineering field then you may want to think about either looking abroad or gaining some experience first.tbh hnc etc may help you get a job but until you get some hands on experience then you'll be stuffed for the work experience bit.I'm not sure where your nearest steelworks/car plant etc is but it may be worth calling in one day to ask if they need any staff in shutdown as this will be coming up soon for most factories.find contracting firms that service the industry and ask if they need any help,it may even have to be unpaid just to get a foot in but it's helping you get experience.if your training to be a spark don't waste your time going down the domestic route as there's millions of people out there doing it and it's work you could train a monkey to do,if you want to get into the engineering side of it you need to learn about fault finding etc,how to get things to work,finding out why things have gone wrong,owning a ford gives you a good foundation in this.get your practical qualifications as the hnc is great but realistically won't prove you can actually do the work.elec/mech qualifications are great to have,I'm packing up my car respray business and moving to Canada as their desperate for sparks out there and I'll earn between $30-40 per hour.they've just trimmed the priority occupation list but industrial sparks are still on it so I'm good for two years or so.good luck with it all mate and I'm sure something will come up,keep knocking on doors and generally making a nuisance of yourself as people remember then.good industries for consistent employment are usually food and low cost electronic companies.