Jobs that use Engineering (Year 9)

Engineering connects to careers across construction, transport, energy, manufacturing, healthcare, communications, the armed forces, and many less obvious fields where engineered systems matter. This lesson plan will help you to show Year 9 students which jobs use Engineering and what those jobs involve.

This lesson is designed to be delivered in 30 minutes as a teacher-led classroom activity.

This activity supports the following frameworks:

  • Gatsby Benchmark 4

This activity is suitable for Year 9 and features careers linked to the following subjects:

  • Engineering

This is one of three lesson plans for teachers covering Engineering with Year 9 students - whether through standalone Engineering or within Design & Technology:

These lesson plans will help you show students how Engineering connects to their future careers.

We recommend using this lesson plan at the very beginning of Year 9. When students start considering their GCSE choices, the earlier they have a concrete sense of where Engineering can take them, the better the decisions they'll make later in the year.

Learning objectives

  • Students will be able to evaluate specific jobs that use Engineering.
  • Students will understand what those jobs involve day-to-day.
  • Students will name a job that interests them and describe one thing they could do to learn more.

Before the lesson

  • You will need a computer connected to the internet and a classroom screen.
  • Open the Jobs that use Engineering page and have it ready on the screen.
  • Review the list of jobs that use Engineering. Pick 3 jobs to explore in more depth:
    • One job that's predictable for Engineering.
    • One job that's less predictable for Engineering.
    • One job that applies Engineering in a less obvious field.
  • View the detailed career page for those jobs so that you know what's there before the class starts.

During the lesson

1. What do you already know? (5 minutes)

  • Ask the class to suggest jobs that use Engineering and briefly explain how.
  • Write the suggestions on the board. Note which jobs feel realistic to them and which feel distant.

2. Looking at jobs in depth (15 minutes)

  • Bring up the Jobs that use Engineering page on the classroom screen.
  • For each of the jobs you picked, open the full career page and discuss with the class:
    • What does the job involve day-to-day?
    • How does the job use Engineering skills?
    • What other subjects or skills are important?
    • What routes lead into that job?
  • Spend more time on one page if students are engaged, rather than rushing through all three.

3. Making it personal (10 minutes)

  • Ask students to pick one job from today's lesson that interests them.
  • Go round the class, asking each student to name the job and answer:
    • What is it about the job that appeals to you most?
    • What's one thing you could do to learn more about it?
  • Close by reminding students that the more careers they know about, the better placed they'll be when they come to make GCSE choices later in the year.

After the lesson