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November 1, 2024
There is a common misconception about the engineering sector that could be putting people off exploring this as a career path. There is an assumption that engineering is all about construction, with the majority of roles taking place on building sites. This could deter some people from exploring this as a career path – particularly female candidates.
In reality, engineering offers a wide range of opportunities across many different sectors. This could allow you to build a career that is perfectly in tune with your interests and passions.
The engineering sector is also changing all of the time, so there may be jobs that arise in the next 10-15 years that aren’t available today. This is all down to the drive towards green energy and more sustainable practices. It’s essential that we invest heavily in infrastructure that will pave the way for our lives to be powered by renewable and low carbon energy sources. And engineers will be essential to this change.
In this guide, we’re exploring some of the lesser known paths into engineering and how these job roles might change in the coming years. If you’re thinking about a career that allows you to use your skills in maths, physics, design and problem-solving, then engineering could be ideal for you.
Our infrastructure is not built for low-carbon usage, so as the world turns its back on fossil fuels in order to reach its Net Zero targets, we’re going to need to re-think the way we live our lives. Homes, businesses and the infrastructure that serves them will need to be resigned, retrofitted and upgraded to make low carbon outcomes possible.
This will require individuals with knowledge of multiple engineering disciplines and an appreciation for low carbon construction to provide consultation support to help guide projects. Not only will these projects need to deliver low carbon outcomes, but they will also need to be carried out using low carbon construction methods.
Alongside a move towards low carbon and sustainability, we’ll also be looking for ways to make existing infrastructure more efficient. The use of smart technology and the Internet of Things is likely to excel in this area. Engineers who specialise in the implementation of smart technology will be essential to ensuring new building work is optimised for efficiency.
This type of work combines elements of civil engineering with data engineering. It involves taking data collected about how we use spaces and using this to inform how these spaces could be made more efficient, or used in a more cost-effective way.
AI, machine learning and robotics are all going to feature heavily in future engineering roles. Working as a machine learning engineer will put you at the forefront of this sector and enable you to shape the way we gather, interpret and utilise data.
As the world adapts to the use of AI systems, these engineers will be essential in providing insight and support. They will make complex systems accessible to non-technical teams and help organisations to decide which systems are worth their investment.
This is a broad category of engineering specialists that will be at the forefront of the green energy revolution. Our current National Grid isn’t set up to provide electricity to homes in order to power central heating and hot water when we phase out gas, which means big changes are on the horizon. This will be at a national level, but also at the level of individual homes.
For example, heating engineers will be essential for keeping up with demand for heat pump installation as homes become more efficient and less reliant on gas. We’re also going to need electrical engineers and project managers to plan the infrastructure upgrades that will make it possible for us to produce and store electricity from renewable sources.
If you are interested in the medical sector, a career in biomedical engineering could be the ideal path for you. The pandemic taught us that we need to be ready to quickly respond to global health threats and to be able to quickly deploy vaccines to help save lives. Biomedical engineers are responsible for advancing healthcare treatments and making it possible to roll out new treatments at a large scale.
This branch of engineering combines principles of biology, chemistry and engineering to create a varied and incredibly interesting sector that is essentially a future-proof career path. If you’d like to be at the forefront of medical breakthroughs, this is the ideal career choice. And you won’t have to go anywhere near a building site.
This might seem like an outdated sector, but feeding the world in the face of adverse climate conditions is going to be a huge challenge in the coming decades. This is where agricultural engineers will lead the charge. This includes a wide range of sectors, including farming, fishing and supply chain. The future looks bright for those working in this sector, as we will have to find sustainable, eco-friendly and compassionate practices that will enable us to feed the world.
Nuclear gets a bad reputation as an industry due to its association with weapons and the risks associated with nuclear disasters. However, nuclear power is a clean and efficient source of energy that is likely to be essential to delivering low carbon energy production. We can’t rely on renewable energy all of the time, as this is often reliant on sunlight, wind or wave power. To plug the gap, nuclear energy is utilised.
We could see a future where nuclear power plants are much smaller and deployed throughout the country to help meet energy demands locally. Engineers will be essential for deploying new projects, maintaining existing facilities, and managing the decommissioning of facilities to ensure this is handled safely. As with the rest of the engineering careers on this list, a career as a nuclear engineer will likely be future-proof, as we’ll always need these expertise.
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