Courses Online Programs – - Offer A Way To Get Into The Energy Careers
Over a century ago, there was no such thing as a car mechanic. If your flivver wouldn’t work, the best one could do was call a bicycle mechanic. Before World War II no one had ever heard of nuclear engineers or computer scientists and a rocket scientist wasn’t a term of derision. These days’ people still can’t discern the difference between a web designer and web developer. Another new occupation that’s still in its nascent form is the energy engineer.
At their core, energy engineers are both technician and auditor. Their profession is dedicated to saving or getting the maximum efficiency of all manner of energy. This could be as basic as getting the most miles per gallon out of a car or air conditioning that uses the least amount of power, to such esoteric arenas as finding a way to recycle trash into cost-efficient power.
Anyone interested in this growing field should have done well in basic STEM (science, technology, energy, math) courses while in high school. From there, their undergraduate studies should include core mechanical and electrical/electronic engineering courses. Minors should include, believe it or not, some accounting/auditing and business management courses. From there, some sort of professional certification is advised.
Nearly 82% of energy engineers went on for their Masters Degree. This is where they take the specialized courses needed to round out their education, including more business courses. As the current presidential administration has made having a green economy a major plank in its platform, a number of schools have started up Energy Engineering programs at this level. As they are still relatively few such programs out there, many pros counter this by working at their jobs and then taking courses with online schools who offer them.
Financial assistance for budding energy engineers is better than in many other engineering specialties thanks to the national agenda. As can be expected, there are the regular federal and state grants such as the Pell and SEOG. One can also apply to the National Science Foundation for S-TEM scholarships. If that isn’t enough, there are also a number of professional engineering societies and private corporations who are willing to help stock the labor pool ranging from the Association of Energy Engineers to Chevron.
Financially, all the effort is certainly worth it. The median salary of an energy engineer or auditor is near $90,000 with excellent benefits. The top 10% earn wages in the six-figure range. To top it, many set up their own consultancies.
As for the demand for those in this nascent occupation, it is an example of what a difference a few years can make. Back in 2008, the Bureau of Labor Statistics projected growth in the field to be a slow 3-6%. In a new report released in December, 2009, it’s jumped up to 9% and rising.
More than anything, what this all proves is the world is seeing a growing need for someone to come up with practical solutions to the ever growing world energy crisis. If energy engineers didn’t exist, it wouldn’t have been long before the specialty would have been created, and now these pros who’ve completed courses online programs will be joining others with Online Database Technology Degrees as they work with technology and the byproducts in our society.