Your education questions answered: My son is taking his Leaving Certificate in June 2004 and is now considering his CAO application. He seems to be interested in engineering as a career option. Could you advise us as to the career opportunities in engineering and on the entry requirements at both degree and cert/diploma level?
There has never been a better time to study engineering in Ireland. With the Government investing over €5 billion a year in infrastructure development, there are a wide range of opportunities for students in all branches of engineering.
Whether it is in the more traditional areas, such as the building of new roads, bridges, port tunnels, etc, or in the electrical/electronic area, on which we are all dependent, engineers have a very bright future.
Apart from the more well-known areas, the development of the chemical and pharmaceutical industries in this State over recent years has seen them grow to bring in a major part of our export earnings and thus provide great career prospects for graduates in these fields.
Concerns relating to environmental issues, which are now so prominent,have given birth to new areas of engineering study. UCD has just introduced a brand new degree - Bio Systems Engineering DN076 - that brings together the fields of biology and engineering. Graduates will apply new engineering technologies to the production, processing and manufacture of biological materials. Imagine food packaging that breathes, thus keeping food fresher for longer, changes colour if the temperature of the product rises above the recommended level, and disintegrates shortly after disposal.
In the totally unrelated field of communications the advent of digital technology has led to the establishment of degrees in communications - for example MH303 in Maynooth, and a specific digital media degree in DCU (DC199). It is clear that students considering careers in engineering have a very bright future ahead of them.
Turning to the second part of your question, for entry requirements to a degree programme in engineering your son will need a minimum of a higher-level grade C in mathematics. Students prepared to start their studies at certificate level can do so with ordinary-level mathematics, however, from where they can proceed to a degree - with good results in their diploma.
Most engineering programmes require a lab science subject at Leaving Certificate as well as the usual requirement in Irish and English. An interesting development in the current year has been the decision of NUI Maynooth to drop the requirement for a student to have a third language to study any of their four engineering degrees - MH 301 Computer, 302 Electronic, 303 Communications and their common entry degree MH304. They are the only NUI college not to require a third language in the current year and it will be interesting to see the reaction of the student market to this change. Colleges outside of NUI have not, of course, had this requirement, so entry regulations to these courses remain unchanged.
• Brian Mooney is president of the Institute of Guidance Counsellors. E-mail questions to bmooney@irish-times.ie.
