Over the last few years, a few degrees at the University of Adelaide have crept up the ladder of popularity as well-liked undergraduate courses. Let’s take a look at some of them: Viticulture & Oenology, Nursing, Engineering, Health Science and Food & Nutrition Science. For those students about to graduate or considering studying these courses, what can you expect career-wise when you pass through those sandstone gates into the world of work? We’ve compiled a little overview of career prospects to help you get a sense of what to expect.
Viticulture & Oenology
What’s South Australia famous for? Delicious wine. As a trained viticulturist, your range of career options spans from making wine, growing grapes, managing your own vineyard to working in any wine-related role in the vibrant Australian hospitality industry. It’s been a difficult few years, but fortunately for you the Australian wine industry is making a comeback. According to the Australian Wine Export Report for June 2017, last year the value of Australian wine exports grew by 10% to $2.3 billion, overall the highest level since 2008-09. Plus, with the Government launching a new plan to significantly increase wine exports the industry is expecting another few years of expansion. It’s a good time to make wine.
Nursing
For many years, there’s been an ongoing discussion in Australia about the nursing shortage. With an ageing population and decline in the number of foreign health workers coming in, the shortage continues. According to the government’s 2014 Australia’s Future Health Workforce report, Australia will need an extra 123,000 nurses by 2030. While this is dismal news for anyone hoping to get treatment in the near future, it’s excellent news for nursing graduates. You can expect to be a highly sought-after employee across the country for a long time yet. Plus, you’ll have a broad range of different nursing jobs to choose from in Australia and abroad, from aged care to aid work.
Engineering
Adelaide University offers a number of different Engineering specialisations, ranging from mechanical to chemical, electrical or civil. The demand for workers fluctuates across different fields, with most engineers being employed in manufacturing: 39.3% of all engineers in Australia, to be exact. There’s been a boom in engineering jobs over the last five years. According to government projections, there are 5,000 to 10,000 engineering jobs expected to open up by 2020. On the plus side, the salary of an engineer is much higher than the national average, starting at $1,961 per week.
Health Science
The Bachelor of Health and Medical Science at Adelaide University is a flexible degree, allowing for specialisations within a number of fields. Depending on which path you take, you could end up in medical or pharmaceutical research, pathology, biotechnology, health policy, management or planning. Plus, you can use this as a platform for further degrees in psychology or medicine, so there are a lot of options on this career menu. Fortunately for you, it’s a pretty safe bet no matter what you pick. Health services is Australia’s largest and fastest growing industry, employing 1.5 million people. Although this broad umbrella encompasses a huge range of jobs, most of the jobs in this sector are predicted to experience very strong growth over the next few years.
Food & Nutrition Science
If this is your thing, you’re in luck. You’ve picked a strong growth industry, with jobs for Nutrition Professionals expected to double or triple by 2020. If you fancy living a good life in Sydney or Melbourne with all the yoga and green smoothies you could want while you offer nutrition advice to the health conscious, this could be for you. Or perhaps you want to go out and help those in need? With obesity and diabetes on the rise among the Australian population, there’s also a growing demand for Nutrition Professionals in social assistance and welfare programs. So, go on and make Australia healthier.