Careers

Thinking about a career in landbased engineering?
There has never been a better time to consider working in the landbased engineering sector. With the coming together (in what has become known as the "perfect storm") of climate change, scarce water, ever increasing world populations and associated food shortages, not to mention insufficent energy resources, the need for the broad range of skills embodied in traditional landbased (or agricultural) engineers has never been more evident.

Engineers in the land based sector get involved in the following:

• Tractors and tillage machines
• Harvesting equipment
• Crop processing
• Animal welfare (handling and transport)
• Irrigation and drainage schemes
• Earth moving and other construction equipment
• Pioneer road and bridge construction
• Forestry machines
• Horticultural machines
• Fish farming equipment

The basic requirements for a career in our sector include:

• the ability to work as part of a team, and have good social skills but also
• the ability to work alone - often outside.
• excellent problem-solving and analytical skills
• a high level of IT literacy. Much of your work will involve computer work, both in the traditional sense but also in their use for machine diagnostics.
• a love of the outdoors and in some cases, international travel.

If you are attracted to a long commute to work on unreliable railway systems then this job is not for you!

Rewards
Agricultural and landbased engineers have high earning potential whether as a Chartered Engineer or an Engineering Technician. Job satisfaction is high.

Career opportunities and promoting professionalism
Click to view a 13 minute video, prepared by students for students, showing the wide variety of job roles in the landbased engineering sector.

Click to view an 8 minute video, prepared by students for students, promoting professionalism in our sector.

A qualification in landbased engineering and technology can open up a number of career pathways including:

• Research, development and teaching
• Sales and Service
• Manufacturing