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If you’re looking to enter the engineering industry, then you first need to familiarise yourself with the different engineering fields, and the different types of engineering apprenticeships out there. Engineering apprenticeships are some of the most popular apprenticeships as there are huge career opportunities and jobs in this field tend to attract big salaries.

In order to gain a strong understanding of the engineering industry and where your future in engineering can take you, we must first look at the different areas of engineering.

Chemical Engineering

Chemical engineering is the field of engineering which focuses on converting chemicals into other more useful and valuable substances, such as food, plastics, petrol, paper, paints, ceramics, metals and minerals. Raw materials are used in making these substances; that is why extracting these raw materials safely and without harming the environment is also a big responsibility of chemical engineers.
This field is composed of combustion engineering, petroleum engineering, principal chemical engineering, smelting engineering, water treatment engineering and environmental engineering. Some chemical engineers can also move to these related areas: biotechnology, mineral engineering, and food engineering.

Civil Engineering

If you’re more of the constructive type or builder, then a career in civil engineering may be the right path for you. This branch of engineering will get you working on buildings, roads, and other large structures. This is a great career if you don’t want yourself cooped up inside an office for days at a stretch – instead you’ll find yourself visiting sites, working on construction sites, and helping the civil engineers with other duties.
This field is composed of four sub-divisions: hydraulics (water) engineering; geotechnical engineering; transport engineering; and structural engineering.

Nuclear Engineering

But if nuclear engineering is more your thing (you want, for example, to work with nuclear plant equipment), then you should look into a career in nuclear engineering. Nuclear engineering apprenticeships basically will teach you the skills necessary to maintain nuclear power stations and the equipment in the stations. You will be trained in in-school and on-site (on-the-job training) learning to make sure that you gain the proper introductory engineering knowledge and skills development.

Electrical Engineering

Electrical engineering apprenticeships will teach you about the different skills and knowledge needed by an electrical engineer and other basic electrician skills like connecting and maintaining electrical services to buildings (domestic, commercial and industrial). You will also learn how to design and plan out electrical systems.

All of these engineering apprenticeships will give you the opportunity to learn important and recognised qualifications which can help you in making your career a successful one. So choose one which fits you the best and enjoy the time learning the skills because once you’re accredited, there’s nowhere else to go but up.