How to Start Your STEM Career – Seven Engineering Courses

In a series of four blog posts, we’ll be highlighting courses available on edX that you can take as your first steps towards exploring and learning STEM – science, technology, engineering and math – skills. Read the first two blogs featuring science and technology courses.

Engineers use math, science and technology to solve real world problems. It is a major growth field, and job seekers can expect to find some type of engineering position in almost any industry.

The main four branches of engineering are Civil, which involves the involves the development of infrastructure such as buildings, railways, roads construction, bridges and general construction project management; Mechanical, which involves the design of mechanical systems in industries such as manufacturing, aeronautics, nanotechnology, nuclear power production, heating and cooling; Industrial, which involves increasing productivity and reducing waste and spending for manufacturing companies; Electrical, which involves the study of energy (wind, solar, natural gas, etc.) and developing technologies to assist with the practical application of such energies; and Chemical, which involves the application of chemical, physical, and biological sciences to the process of converting raw materials or chemicals into more useful or valuable forms.

However, numerous subfields are on the rise as niche engineering skills are needed in industries such as software development, agriculture, biomedicine and aerospace. With the broad range of possibilities and high career prospects, look to your personal interests to help determine which type of engineering is right for you.

Here are seven courses you can take to jumpstart your career in engineering: