HVAC stands for heating, ventilation and air conditioning. HVAC technicians help people stay warm in winter and cool in summer.
By keeping equipment running efficiently, and by replacing older systems, they also help to reduce energy use and lower carbon emissions. This role supports health, comfort and the environment, making homes, schools, and workplaces better for everyone.
With experience, you could become a senior technician or supervisor. You might specialise in areas like refrigeration or energy-efficient systems (like heat pumps).
There are opportunities to move into design, project management or start your own business. You could also train others, or work on large-scale commercial or industrial projects.
There’s no perfect career path or ideal way into your dream job.
But if you’re interested in education and training options that could be relevant to this role, you might want to consider:
Options available after GCSEs:
Schools and colleges each have their own career guidance plan and can provide detailed information, advice, and guidance on options and next steps.
This role is varied. You might work in homes one day and large office buildings the next. Technology is always improving, so you will keep learning new skills, especially around greener energy systems. You get to solve real problems and see the results of your work straight away.
This role can also be known by some other job titles including:
Air conditioning engineer
Refrigeration engineer
HVAC engineer
Building services technician
Cooling systems installer
Maintenance engineer
Digital forensic technicians help keep people and organisations safe. They look for clues on computers, mobile phones and online systems to help solve crimes or understand what went wrong after a cyber-attack.
Their work can support police investigations, protect businesses from hackers and help courts make fair decisions. By carefully handling digital evidence, they help make sure the truth is found and that evidence can be trusted.
With experience, you could become a senior digital forensic analyst or move into cyber security roles. Some people specialise in mobile devices or online investigations. Others move into training, management or work as expert witnesses in court. There are also opportunities to work in policing, private companies or government organisations.
There’s no perfect career path or ideal way into your dream job.
But if you’re interested in education and training options that could be relevant to this role, you might want to consider:
Options available after GCSEs:
More options available after that:
Schools and colleges each have their own career guidance plan and can provide detailed information, advice, and guidance on options and next steps.
You might be working on a criminal investigation one day and helping a company recover from a cyber-attack the next. You get to use advanced tools to uncover hidden information and solve real-world problems. Your work can have a big impact, helping to protect people, money and important systems.
You might also see this role listed under different job titles, including:
Digital forensic analyst
Digital forensics investigator
Cyber forensic technician
Computer forensic analyst
Structural engineering technicians help check the places we live, work and travel in are safe and strong. They work with engineers to plan and draw parts of buildings and bridges.
Their work helps stop structures from failing and keeps people protected. By checking designs and materials, they make sure projects follow safety rules. Without this role, buildings and structures might not be tested properly, which could put people at risk.
With experience and further study, structural engineering technicians can become senior technicians or team leaders. Some move on to become structural or civil engineers. Others go into areas like building design, surveying or project management as they gain more skills and qualifications.
There’s no perfect career path or ideal way into your dream job.
But if you’re interested in education and training options that could be relevant to this role, you might want to consider:
Options available after GCSEs:
Schools and colleges each have their own career guidance plan and can provide detailed information, advice, and guidance on options and next steps.
This role lets you help create real things like bridges, stadiums, tall buildings and homes. You will see projects grow from ideas on a screen to real structures on site. You use modern technology to test designs and solve problems. Some days are spent in an office and others out on site. You play an important part in keeping people safe by safe by helping check that structural designs are carried out properly.
You might also see this role listed under different job titles, including:
Structural technician
Structural CAD technician
Engineering design technician
BIM technician
As a Research and Development Technician, you help test and refine ideas so they can become real working products.
You make sure designs work properly, help test and improve prototypes, and share your findings with engineers and other team members. Your work helps businesses build better, safer and more useful products, from cars and aircraft to everyday machines, and makes sure things work as they should before they reach customers.
Starting as a Research and Development Technician can lead to roles such as product development technician, design technician or specialist technical roles. With experience and further training, you could move into higher technical jobs or work towards becoming an engineer.
There’s no perfect career path or ideal way into your dream job.
But if you’re interested in education and training options that could be relevant to this role, you might want to consider:
Options available after GCSEs:
Schools and colleges each have their own career guidance plan and can provide detailed information, advice, and guidance on options and next steps.
This role combines hands-on practical work with creative thinking. You might help build and test new ideas, work with prototypes or use digital tools to check how things fit and function. You will work alongside engineers in industries such as manufacturing, automotive or aerospace, helping test and improve products people use every day. There is always something new to learn and improve, making the job varied and interesting.
You might also see this role listed under different job titles, including:
Engineering Technician
Product Design and Development Technician
Prototype Technician
Laboratory Technician
Technical Support Technician
Mechatronics technicians are essential in places that use machines with lots of moving parts, like factories making cars or planes. They make sure the machines that help produce goods are safe, efficient and reliable.
When something breaks or doesn’t work correctly, they find the problem and fix it so the production line can keep running, which keeps products flowing to shops and customers. Their work helps companies meet goals for safety, quality and production.
Once trained, mechatronics technicians can specialise further in roles like Maintenance Engineer or Automation Specialist. With more experience you might move into team leadership, technical management, project engineering or broader engineering roles in sectors such as aerospace, automotive and energy.
There’s no perfect career path or ideal way into your dream job.
But if you’re interested in education and training options that could be relevant to this role, you might want to consider:
Options available after GCSEs:
Schools and colleges each have their own career guidance plan and can provide detailed information, advice, and guidance on options and next steps.
As a mechatronics technician, you work with lots of modern machines and systems that combine mechanics, electricity and electronics. You get to figure out how things work and be the person who gets things back up and running when they go wrong. You might work on robots, conveyor systems, control panels and sensors. Some days you’ll be in busy workshops or production halls, and other days you could be solving complex problems on advanced automated equipment. This role is hands on, varied and gives you skills employers across many industries value.
You might also see this role listed under different job titles, including:
Mechatronics Maintenance Technician
Automation Technician
Engineering Technician
Maintenance Engineer
Technical Support Technician
Data and AI Technicians help organisations save time and reduce mistakes. They look at everyday tasks and help improve how they are done using smart digital tools and data.
AI means computers that can learn from data and make decisions. Automation means setting up systems that carry out tasks on their own. By doing this work, Data and AI Technicians help teams focus on more interesting and meaningful jobs, improve services for customers and use technology in a safe and responsible way.
With experience, you could move into roles like automation specialist, data analyst or digital transformation lead. Some people go on to manage projects or teams. Others specialise in AI systems or business improvement. This role can also lead to higher level digital or data apprenticeships.
There’s no perfect career path or ideal way into your dream job.
But if you’re interested in education and training options that could be relevant to this role, you might want to consider:
Options available after GCSEs:
More options available after that:
Schools and colleges each have their own career guidance plan and can provide detailed information, advice, and guidance on options and next steps.
This job lets you work with cutting edge technology without needing to be a coding expert. You get to see your ideas make a real difference to how people work. No two days are the same because every organisation has different challenges. You also play a part in making sure AI is used fairly, safely and responsibly, which is becoming more important every year.
You might also see this role listed under different job titles, including:
Automation practitioner
AI automation specialist
Digital automation practitioner
Process automation analyst
Aircraft come in many shapes and forms – from small aeroplanes to airliners, jet fighters to helicopters – and it’s fascinating to understand what enables them to fly. The UK manages one of the earth’s busiest and most complex areas of airspace, with aircraft taking off and arriving here from hundreds of destinations around the world.
Air traffic control teams contribute to the safe and efficient movement of aircraft. They ensure all equipment is working correctly and processes are followed exactly to standards set by the Civil Aviation Authority. You could be the technician who guides people and products to their destination and enables them to land safely.
Once you’ve gained skills in an airport or air traffic control centre, you could transfer your knowledge to working for a consultancy that specialises in aviation and helping airports and airlines improve their safety, efficiency and environmental performance.
You could also work for the UK’s Civil Aviation Authority or use your knowledge of UK Airspace to work in countries that are growing the level of activity in their airspace.
There’s no perfect career path or ideal way into your dream job. But if you're interested in education and training options that could be relevant to this role, you might want to consider:
But if you’re interested in education and training options that could be relevant to this role, you might want to consider:
Options available after GCSEs:
More options available after that:
Schools and colleges each have their own career guidance plan and can provide detailed information, advice, and guidance on options and next steps.
You could work in several different aviation environments, including air traffic control centres, commercial airports, military bases, and aerodromes. You’ll learn about UK and international regulation that governs the management of airspace.
This role can also be known by some other job titles including:
Civil Approach Controller
Civil Approach Terminal Controller
Civil Aerodrome Controller
Civil Terminal Controller
Military Terminal Radar Controller
Military Terminal Aerodrome Controller
The electricity we receive in our homes, schools, factories, shops and offices is transported to us through a vast network of high-voltage power cables, transformers and storage facilities. This network needs to be planned, managed and maintained, as more places need electricity and parts of the network get old.
The energy that creates the electricity comes from several different sources, including fossil fuel power stations and increasingly renewable sources of energy, including solar farms, and wind and wave turbines. You could be the technician who helps to connect the new, cleaner sources and contributes to greener energy supply.
You will begin your career working in a team, learning how different parts of power networks connect and operate. With experience you may become a specialist in a particular area, with responsibility for training others.
You might choose to specialise in renewable energy because of your commitment to combatting climate change. Or you could become involved in the commissioning of new technologically-advanced kit that is more energy efficient and reliable.
There’s no perfect career path or ideal way into your dream job. But if you're interested in education and training options that could be relevant to this role, you might want to consider:
But if you’re interested in education and training options that could be relevant to this role, you might want to consider:
Options available after GCSEs:
More options available after that:
Schools and colleges each have their own career guidance plan and can provide detailed information, advice, and guidance on options and next steps.
The network that electricity travels across is known as the National Grid. If one part of it breaks down, the grid will continue to supply electricity from other power stations on the grid. Through the maintenance work you do, you’ll help to ensure people don’t lose their electricity supply. Or if extreme weather conditions mean electric power is down, you’ll be part of the team making sure it is supplied again quickly.
This role can also be known by some other job titles including:
Substation Engineer
Asset Management Engineer
Planning Engineer
Design Engineer
Control Engineer
Electrical Project Engineer
Operational Delivery Manager
If you’re a gamer, you know how much thought goes into the whole experience of a game. Not only to the storyline, characters, script, visuals, and the action that’s in the hands of the gamer, but also to the sounds. Animal squeals, explosions, gun shots, electric storms, car screeches and crashes: all need to be created and programmed to happen at exactly the right time.
A lot of creativity and precision goes into making these sounds. A gaming audio technician helps to record material that can be manipulated to make the best possible sound effect. They’re also involved in putting character’s voices into games. With nearly three billion gamers all over the world, you could be the technician who helps create the excitement and atmosphere of the next big game they play.
With experience you could become a senior audio designer and eventually an audio director. Alternatively you could choose to be a freelance sound designer, working with a range of gaming design studios. Another option is transferring your skills to the film and TV industries and focussing on editing either sound effects, music, or dialogue.
There’s no perfect career path or ideal way into your dream job.
But if you’re interested in education and training options that could be relevant to this role, you might want to consider:
Options available after GCSEs:
Schools and colleges each have their own career guidance plan and can provide detailed information, advice, and guidance on options and next steps.
You will work with a big team of designers and programmers to plan and create the soundtrack for a game. You might also run auditions to find voice actors you need and then work with them to record their lines with the right energy, style and tone to match the action of the game.
If air is kept at a pressure that is greater than normal air pressure (atmospheric), it is defined as compressed air. If it is kept at a pressure that is less than normal air pressure, it is defined as a vacuum. Compressed air and vacuums are used in a range of products and services including power tools, cleaning systems, gas generation, and air cylinders that enable automation.
Technicians support the effective operations of these tools and systems, by diagnosing faults, repairing equipment, and carrying out maintenance to ensure optimum efficiency. A wide range of industries need this support, including manufacturing, pharmaceutical, oil and gas, power stations, hospitals, and transportation. You could be the technician who carries out specialist repairs and installations to keep operations running smoothly.
You could begin your career working in a specialist engineering services business, where you’ll provide technical support to a range of customers.
Alternatively, many industrial businesses have their own technicians to provide continuous technical advice and services. You could progress to being a team leader, running a group of engineers and training other people.
There’s no perfect career path or ideal way into your dream job.
But if you’re interested in education and training options that could be relevant to this role, you might want to consider:
Options available after GCSEs:
Schools and colleges each have their own career guidance plan and can provide detailed information, advice, and guidance on options and next steps.
The latest examples of compressed air and vacuum equipment are highly innovative, using information technology (IT) control systems and internet connectivity to ensure cutting edge efficiency. Automation is also rapidly expanding, particularly in industrial environments, with air cylinders helping to create force and different directions of motion. There are many great opportunities to be involved in exciting innovation.
This role can also be known by some other job titles including:
Air Treatment Engineer
Air Treatment Technician
Commissioning Engineer
Electrical Engineer
Electrical Technician
Installation Engineer
Mechanical Engineer
Pressure Systems Competent Person
Product Support Engineer
Service Engineer
Service Technician