Engineering Education and Careers

Formerly known as "ProfEng"

Why choose Professional Engineering?

Becoming a professional engineer is a very rewarding career. Engineers can be highly paid. As well as an attractive salary, you can enjoy a flexible career with the options to be office based, production based, self-employed or as a consultant travel the world on projects. You can transfer your skills to different sectors and, with the correct qualifications, career progression into management is also widely achievable.

Will I get a job as an engineer?

Yes! There are many more jobs than applicants! There is an increasing shortfall of applicants which will increase still further as 20% of current engineers will retire by 2027. 18% of all jobs are related to engineering in some way. Numbers of school pupils taking STEM subjects are still not increasing fast enough to reduce the increasing shortage of engineers.

Will I get well paid?

Engineer’s salaries are rising faster than inflation. Graduate salaries are only higher for doctors, dentists and vets.

What’s it like being an engineer?

You’ll work in a team with others from different disciplines

You’ll almost certainly travel widely for your job

You’ll do critical thinking and make critical judgements

You’ll make a difference to society. Engineers have produced a long list of improvements – Healthcare, Safety, Net Zero, Transport, Medicine, Environment, Energy Security, and many more.

What subjects do I need to become an engineer?

You will need to do Maths at school and then it depends on which branch of engineering you favour. Biology for bio-engineering. Chemistry for chemical engineering. Physics/engineering science for mechanical, civil, structural, electrical, electronics, etc. Routes into Engineering explains more about it. Link

Engineering is not in decline; skills required are shifting; it continues to need young qualified engineers and increasingly offers very well paid careers.