Many industries depend on chemical processes, particularly manufacturing and natural resource industries. These processes require chemical engineers who can safely design and execute design chemical processes.

Chemical engineers may design new ways to reduce how many pollutants are created by industry or participate in the creation of new polymer materials with novel applications. Often the key process in Chemical Engineering is taking raw materials and turning them into a useful output.

 Career Paths

After graduating as a chemical engineer, you may find most opportunities are in intensive industrial and mining operations. Examples include oil extraction and refining, most power generation based on fossil fuels or nuclear power, plastic and polymer manufacturing and recycling. As with other engineering fields, as your career progresses you will have opportunities to specialise or to move into more management orientated roles, meaning you can tailor your career to your interests and personality.

With over 400 engineering courses offered across undergraduate and postgraduate level, there are no shortage of entry routes to a career in engineering. Most of these courses focus on a specific field of engineering and at postgraduate level the degree of specialisation becomes greater. If you’re set on a field there is likely to be a course that will allow you to study it from the outset, but many undergraduate engineering programs offer a general entry option, allowing students to study a range of topics and make a decision on their area of focus later, with the benefit of direct experience.