What is the future of environmental engineering?

my country's environmental protection career was officially launched in the 1970s, and the first environmental engineering majors were born in universities such as Tsinghua University in the 1980s. However, by 1999, there were more than 120 undergraduate colleges and universities offering environmental engineering majors across the country, in addition to some junior colleges and vocational and technical colleges.

For many years, "employment difficulties" have been plaguing college and technical secondary school students majoring in environmental engineering. Even undergraduates and graduate students from prestigious universities also have such difficulties. Every year, a large number of environmental engineering graduates cannot find their ideal jobs, and most students have to find their way into other industries. This situation of "promising prospects but worrying reality" has made many students majoring in environmental studies worried and has also caused certain adverse effects in society. Why is the environmental major "popular but not popular"? This is a topic worthy of consideration and discussion by university management and industry insiders.

1. Analysis of Employment Situation

Environmental Engineering (Environmental

Engineering) is the science and technology that studies and engages in preventing and controlling environmental pollution and improving environmental quality. Environmental engineering is related to ecology in biology, environmental hygiene and environmental medicine in medicine, as well as environmental physics and environmental chemistry. Since the Department of Environmental Engineering is in its infancy, the field of the discipline is still developing, but its core is the control of environmental pollution sources.

There are basically three destinations for graduates of environmental engineering majors: national environmental protection departments and scientific research units at all levels who are "financially dependent", and industrial and mining enterprises who are "profit-oriented" and need to solve pollution problems. As well as environmentally friendly companies that really eat "environmentally friendly rice". Judging from the current market demand for environmental engineering students, only a few can actually enter the government's environmental protection department, planning department, and construction management department. Affected by the personnel system under the long-term planned economic system, these units have many obstacles in personnel establishment and indicator control. Therefore, combined with the characteristics and positioning of higher vocational education, graduates of environmental engineering majors in higher vocational education should mainly be engaged in: environmental engineering companies, environmental monitoring departments, industrial and mining enterprises, design units or departments engaged in environmental engineering design, construction management, and environmental protection project operation management , environmental monitoring and other basic and technical work.

From the situation point of view, students majoring in environmental engineering in higher vocational colleges have certain advantages in going to environmental protection companies. First, these units generally need practical professional and technical talents who can be quickly put to use in the design, construction, operation and debugging of environmental protection projects; second, undergraduates and graduate students majoring in environmental engineering are often unwilling to go to environmental protection projects. Companies, especially small, private environmental engineering companies, are not willing to go to small, private environmental engineering companies. They position themselves too high and want to go to large enterprises, foreign-funded enterprises, scientific research institutions, government environmental protection departments, etc. (This view of employment affects their employment. (an important reason for the difficulty); third, there are currently many environmental protection companies (taking Chengdu, Sichuan Province as an example, there are hundreds of registered environmental protection companies), and judging from the current development trend of environmental protection, after all, it is a century-old enterprise. "Sunrise industries" will have an increasing demand for environmental protection talents in the future, especially front-line environmental protection technical talents. It is predicted that by 2010, the domestic environmental protection market will reach 500 billion yuan, requiring 10 million environmental protection practitioners and 500,000 environmental protection technicians.

2. Current situation and confusion

Currently, many environmental protection companies are short of talents and are hungry for talents. However, there is still a certain gap between the professional talents they need and the graduates provided by the school, and the school cannot fully meet their needs. Not long ago, an environmental engineering company undertook the design and construction tasks of environmental protection engineering projects, but the number of technical personnel of the company could not meet the needs of the project volume. Therefore, the company was in urgent need of technical personnel who could stand alone to undertake the design of certain projects. and construction work, including integrated projects such as treatment plan selection, process design, equipment selection, general layout design, construction supervision, and operation and commissioning. Although the fresh graduates at school had a good theoretical foundation, they lacked practical experience and could not meet the company's requirements. As a result, the company had to find someone else. It is very common for environmental engineering professionals to require environmental engineering professionals who can "stand alone", have strong skills, and can quickly undertake engineering tasks. There is even a phenomenon of "poaching" in this industry, and some companies "rob" talents by paying high prices.

This shows that society does not need environmental engineering professionals, but there is a certain gap between the employment requirements of enterprises and the status of the graduates we train.

The current teaching materials and teaching content of environmental engineering majors are similar. In order to ensure the comprehensiveness and systematicness of the major, and to expand the employment opportunities of graduates, the professional courses generally cover the fields involved in this major. The environmental engineering major covers a wide range of areas, including environmental monitoring, environmental quality assessment, as well as the design, construction and operation management of water pollution control, air pollution control, solid waste treatment and disposal, vibration and noise control, etc. Many aspects. To complete these many professional courses within limited teaching time, the tasks are naturally heavy and the study time is tight. It is inevitable that "the learning scope is broad but the depth is average", and there is no time to take into account the cultivation and training of students' practical ability, which ultimately leads to the graduates' practical Skills cannot meet the employment requirements of enterprises. This has become a major confusion in the teaching of environmental engineering majors.

To enhance students’ professional abilities and practical skills, it is necessary to strengthen practical teaching links, especially internships, and especially those who can do things themselves, independently or participate in environmental monitoring, engineering design, construction management, and operation management. and other specific operational work to enhance students' perceptual understanding, improve students' practical skills, and enrich students' practical experience. However, due to the characteristics of the profession, whether it is an environmental monitoring department, an environmental protection company, or a factory's sewage treatment station, it is almost impossible to accommodate dozens of students for internship at one time. Generally, an internship site can only accept four or four students at a time. Five interns. Therefore, each internship often requires multiple internship units, which usually results in students in the same class receiving different content and degree of practical training. In addition, in recent years, many companies have been reluctant to accept student internships due to various reasons such as economy and safety, and only accept a few people when it is really unavoidable. The existence of these problems has brought difficulties to students' internship. In addition, the workload of some internship sites is not saturated, the internship efficiency is low, and the internship effect is compromised. In this way, the difficulty in ensuring students' practical skills training has become another major confusion.

3. Exploring the way out

(1) Talent training positioning

Faced with the contradiction between the job market and talent training, the environmental engineering major must survive and To develop, we must find a way. The market is like a baton, we cannot change the market. Only by following this baton and actively tilting teaching plans and teaching methods toward the market can our graduates be "marketable."

Professional positioning must be clear and highly targeted. Because in the limited time students are in school, it is impossible for the school to train students to be "knowledgeable and proficient in everything" who are good at monitoring, design, construction, operation management, theoretical research, and new product development in all aspects of the major. of universal talents. Therefore, teaching plans must be focused, selective, and targeted.

Based on the current situation of the job market and the demand for higher vocational talents, there are at least three directions that environmental engineering majors in higher vocational schools should focus on. One is engaged in the design of environmental engineering (mainly sewage treatment, flue gas desulfurization, municipal water supply and drainage design and garbage disposal site design); the second is the operation and commissioning of environmental protection projects (focusing on sewage treatment projects); the third is indoor and outdoor environment Quality monitoring. First of all, due to the country’s increasingly strict control and management of environmental pollution, there are still many pollution problems in various places, and there will be more environmental problems that need to be solved. This is why environmental engineering is a sunrise industry in the 21st century. , and why environmental protection companies, large and small, are springing up and booming. Second, the current front-line environmental engineering technical talents are far from meeting the market demand, especially in the operation and debugging of sewage treatment projects. There is still a considerable shortage of talents. Third, environmental monitoring can be used for both routine and special monitoring tasks in monitoring centers, relevant production enterprises and scientific research institutes. It is also usually competent for analytical laboratory work in other industries, as well as emerging indoor air quality testing.

Obviously, the focus of the environmental engineering major in higher vocational colleges is not to cultivate high-level talents of research and development type, but to cultivate skilled talents with strong practicality. To this end, schools should work hard on professional construction and professional teaching.

(2) Professional construction

Professional construction must attach great importance to the construction of practical training facilities and the construction of teaching staff.

As a higher vocational environmental engineering major, it must have certain experimental internship conditions, including experimental and internship facilities for basic skills training and professional skills training. By equipping with corresponding environmental monitoring and process experiment equipment, we ensure that students' on-campus learning can be combined with experiments, internships, and comprehensive training to promote the enhancement of students' professional abilities.

The construction of professional teaching staff is a key factor in ensuring the effectiveness of teaching and training, and is a guarantee for maximizing students' ability. Teachers majoring in environmental engineering in higher vocational colleges should strive to become experts in the industry. Without certain practical experience and on-site knowledge, it will be difficult for teachers to effectively train students in classroom teaching, comprehensive training, course design, and the use of homework questions to simulate work content. Therefore, for professional teachers of environmental engineering in higher vocational colleges, in a sense, having rich practical experience is much more important than merely having a high degree of education. To this end, professional teachers should strengthen their extensive contacts with enterprises, actively participate in technical exchanges and technical services of environmental protection enterprises, establish good relationships with enterprises, and lay a foundation for the improvement of teachers' level and students' internship. When conditions permit, professional teachers strive to take turns to work in factories and go to environmental protection enterprises and project sites to participate in engineering design, operation and commissioning, construction management, technical services, etc., and strive to become technical talents, technical elites, and even technical experts in the industry. . This is the basis for sustainable professional development, which requires time and energy, as well as overall arrangements and multi-faceted support and cooperation.

Professional construction should focus on the demonstration of teaching plans, the improvement of teaching processes and the intensity of practical teaching links.

In terms of teaching plans, first of all, the selection of professional courses should reflect pertinence. The curriculum and class allocation should be inclined towards the direction of market demand and the cultivation of practical abilities, and should meet the needs of environmental engineering design, environmental monitoring, and the operation of engineering projects. Requirements for management and debugging points, etc. The teaching plan should be based on sufficient market research and careful discussion and research by the professional teaching and research office to formulate an outline that is highly targeted, pragmatic and efficient, and has clear professional competency goals. Then, the course syllabus must be written strictly in accordance with the requirements of the teaching plan to fully reflect the pertinence and purpose of the teaching.

During the teaching process, explanations must be fully integrated with the actual operating status and operation process of environmental engineering. Pictures and animations must be widely used in the classroom, and modern educational technology must be used for teaching. At the same time, on-site visits and explanations must be coordinated in a timely manner. To further deepen the understanding of relevant processes, equipment and technologies; homework questions should strive to simulate the content in actual work, train students to solve practical problems such as calculation and engineering technology essentials that are often used in the field of environmental engineering employment, and organize mutual discussions In order to ensure the effectiveness of training

In terms of practical teaching, on the one hand, we must strengthen environmental monitoring experiments, environmental engineering process experiments, and comprehensive training in monitoring and design, and strive to simulate work sites to conduct "exercises". It is the basic training to improve practical ability; on the other hand, it is necessary to establish an appropriate internship base through exchanges and cooperation with enterprises. In order to ensure that students get enough internship opportunities, the internship time arrangement should be flexible. It can be done at the end of the semester, at the beginning of the semester or in the middle of the semester; it can be done during teaching hours, or during winter and summer vacations. The internship time should be used as much as possible during the busy period of the company to alleviate the company's manpower shortage and increase students' hands-on opportunities. Internship points and internship content should strive to enable students to get multi-faceted training. Students at different internship points should be rotated at different times, so that students can participate in practical operations in environmental monitoring, engineering design, operation management, etc., to maximize Train students' professional abilities and enrich students' practical experience.

In short, as a generally considered "sunrise industry" in the 21st century, environmental engineering has become a major that is currently recognized as "difficult to find employment". Although this has nothing to do with the importance that society attaches to environmental protection and the talent pool of environmental companies. It is related to the concept of demand, but as a higher vocational college that cultivates technical talents, it must face reality, aim at the market, work hard from all aspects, improve the strength of vocational and technical education, find breakthrough points, and strive to improve students' comprehensive strength and professional ability. Only in this way can the environmental engineering profession develop steadily and healthily.

Environmental Engineering Major Business Training Objectives:

This major trains people with urban and urban water, gas, sound, solid waste and other pollution prevention and water supply and drainage engineering, pollution control planning and water resources Knowledge in protection and other aspects, and can be engaged in environmental engineering in planning, design, construction, management, education and research and development in government departments, planning departments, economic management departments, environmental protection departments, design units, industrial and mining enterprises, scientific research units, schools, etc. Discipline senior engineering and technical talents.

Business training requirements: Students in this major mainly learn the basic theories and basic knowledge of general chemistry, engineering mechanics, surveying, engineering drawing, microbiology, hydraulics, electrical engineering, environmental monitoring, and environmental engineering. Receive basic training in foreign languages, computer technology and drawing, pollutant monitoring and analysis, engineering design, management and planning, and have basic abilities in scientific research, engineering design and management planning in the fields of environmental science and technology and water supply and drainage engineering.

Graduates should acquire the following knowledge and abilities:

1. Master general chemistry, analytical chemistry, physical chemistry, engineering mechanics, surveying, engineering drawing, microbiology, Basic theories and basic knowledge of hydraulics, electrical engineering, environmental monitoring and evaluation, and environmental engineering disciplines;

2. Master water pollution control engineering, air pollution control engineering, noise pollution control engineering, and solid waste treatment and disposal Basic principles and design methods of resource-based engineering;

3. Have preliminary capabilities in pollutant monitoring and analysis, environmental monitoring, environmental quality assessment, environmental planning and management; 4. Understand environmental science and technology Theoretical frontiers and development trends;

5. Master the basic methods of literature retrieval and data query, and have preliminary scientific research and practical work capabilities.

Main courses:

Main subjects: Environmental science and engineering

Main courses: engineering mechanics, surveying, hydraulics and water pumps, water treatment microbiology, General chemistry, analytical chemistry, physical chemistry.

Main practical teaching links: measurement practice, engineering drawing, computer application and computer practice, hydraulics experiment, microbiology experiment, environmental monitoring experiment, water treatment experiment, air pollution control experiment, etc., generally arranged for 40 About weeks.

Length of study: four years

Degree awarded: Bachelor of Engineering

Similar majors: Environmental Engineering Safety Engineering Disaster Prevention and Control Engineering Water Quality Science and Technology Water Supply and Drainage Engineering Groundwater Science and Engineering Wind Energy and Power Engineering Environmental Science and Engineering Urban Planning

Radiation Protection and Environmental Engineering

Prospect Analysis of Environmental Engineering Major: Workpieces are easy to find, but the salary is not high

Environmental protection occupations have been rated as the most popular occupations in the 21st century. However, in the current booming supply and demand meetings for graduates, environmental professionals have received a cold reception. This is because in specific environmental management industries, investment is often greater than Output and win are small. Except for the annual profit of 100 million yuan in environmental consulting business and environmental protection technology service industry, other industries are generally in a state of loss. Therefore, graduates of environmental majors related to this The employment situation of students is also very popular. Many students thought that the major was bright before enrolling, but after enrolling, they found that they were in trouble: they said it was hard to find jobs.

From what the author obtained through the survey, it can be described in eight words: jobs are easy to find, but the pay is not high. It is obvious that the demand for talents in this profession is greatly expanding; the employment environment is indeed not very good. According to a survey of hundreds of environmental engineering practitioners, the salary of graduates in economically developed areas such as the Pearl River Delta and the Yangtze River Delta is generally between 1,500 yuan/month and 3,000 yuan/month. Similar positions in underdeveloped areas The salary is generally 800-1800 yuan/month.

After graduating from this major, you should strive to find employment in economically developed areas, because the professional concepts and technical levels of large companies in this major allow newcomers to quickly accumulate relevant work experience. It is difficult for ordinary small companies to spend the cost and energy to train new people, and they also lack this environment and ability.

Environmental positions are a typical "the older you get, the more valuable you are." Generally, environmental engineers recruited by design institutes will indicate that they need more than 5 years of design work experience. Moreover, because the annual growth in the number of graduates in this major may greatly exceed market demand. Therefore, graduates must accept lower salary levels before entering the industry.

If you correctly understand the situation and study hard, the prospects of this industry will get better and better. Environmental science covers a wide range of areas. Coupled with the rise of “green technology”, the range of industries available is vast. Once environmental protection talents become popular, the young "environmental protection sector" can create a large number of successful "green" gold-collar workers just like the IT industry and investment banking industry in the past.

Learning ability is more important for technical positions

At present, the main work directions of environmental engineering are water treatment, garbage treatment, and flue gas treatment, which are commonly known as three waste treatments. Water treatment is divided into sewage treatment. and water supply treatment, involving many industry categories, and currently have a wide range of employment applications. Flue gas treatment is currently the most popular and sought-after field, and the salary is very high.

The concept of the environmental protection industry is relatively broad. There are environmental protection management, such as the Environmental Protection Bureau and environmental monitoring departments; there are environmental protection facility operations, such as water treatment stations, and environmental supervision and management departments of various enterprises; there are environmental protection engineering companies that do project contracting ; There are environmental protection equipment manufacturing, such as professional equipment manufacturers; there are environmental protection technology consulting, such as design institutes and environmental protection technology companies.

In terms of employment direction, according to industry development trends, the first choice is to do environmental protection technical support and project management in foreign companies, followed by R&D, and finally environmental management within the company. The reason for this choice is that running in an enterprise will not make a big difference. So what if you have been running for 10 years? At best, you are just a debugging master.

Case: Li Shujing graduated from a university majoring in environmental engineering in 2004 and now works for a water treatment company. He believes that there is a big gap between the school's curriculum and its actual application. The UCT process used in the company's water plant - he had never heard of it before graduation. His classmates were as familiar as hearing about this process with him on QQ. In fact, the UCT process is already a relatively mature process. When he was in college, except for the traditional reactive method introduced in the textbook, he did not introduce the nitrogen and phosphorus removal process (VIP, UCT) and other processes in detail (Note: The recent industrial water pollution control textbook by McGraw-Hill Publishing Company in the United States basically The sewage treatment engineering technology currently used in our country has been introduced in detail). Not only that, the conditions of the school are also very different from the actual application. I attended a meeting in the company about purchasing water plant testing equipment. Compared with what is currently used in actual engineering, it can almost be said that the school is still in the period of slash-and-burn farming. For example, measuring COD requires reagents and heating at school. It takes 2 hours to measure once. However, our company now uses ultraviolet light for direct real-time monitoring.

According to our survey of the environmental protection industry, we believe that technical consulting and engineering management are the mainstream directions for the development of this industry. In fact, most foreign companies that have entered China also have huge technical advantages in these two aspects, and their profits are also very good. These companies generally require large-scale project management capabilities when recruiting senior talents, and they also attach great importance to the management qualities of fresh graduates. Therefore, students who are unwilling to leave their major and are interested in technology can start self-study on "Project Management" and other courses from now on. In addition, you can get in touch with more industry magazines, which will bring more popular technologies and concepts.

If you have the opportunity to intern at a first-class company, don't miss it. Reading a book about technology and advanced equipment ten times is not as good as operating it or seeing it once in person. Moreover, teamwork and management ideas can only be truly experienced in actual work.

Sales majors have weak professionalism and a wide range of choices

When recruiting for sales positions of most environmentally friendly products, companies will require graduates from environmental engineering majors. Talents with professional backgrounds can provide professional explanations to customers and can also undertake some after-sales service functions.

At present, the talent market provides similar positions that are growing much faster than technical positions. A large part of the sales, after-sales service and other positions of environmentally friendly products. But this type of position generally has the following characteristics when you first start: the work is tiring and the salary is low-basically, sales positions in all industries are similar.

Sales positions are not particularly demanding for professional backgrounds. In other words, companies can start from the premise of saving costs and select talents with relatively low academic qualifications or mismatched majors to sell products. Because what matters in sales positions is sales skills rather than environmental protection expertise.

Being in the market is a career with a big "money" future.

Currently, senior marketing positions are the most highly paid in the workplace. These positions generally require five or more years of marketing career experience, good customer resources, excellent planning capabilities and market awareness.

If college students have some sales skills in school, their competitiveness will undoubtedly be greatly enhanced. Moreover, the chances of changing careers after doing sales will be better. After all, the principles of sales are universal in almost any industry.

Only select useful ones for certification

Take the environmental protection and monitoring major as an example. Obtaining the "Analytical Intermediate Operator Certificate" and the "Analytical Senior Operator Certificate" are the basic requirements for this major. . In addition, you can choose a certificate based on your ideal target career. For example, those engaged in indoor environment work can take the "Intermediate Certificate in Indoor Environmental Testing", "Environmental Engineering Design Certificate", etc. There are also some basic application certificates such as English, computer certificates, and operational certifications such as AUTOCAD, which employers will also consider.

Sometimes certificates can win a certain degree of recognition for oneself, but this is not absolute. Certificates should not be numerous but refined. They should be targeted and highlight the advantages. It is easy to list certificates blindly. Burying the advantages will only be counterproductive.

The highly professional nature of environmental majors requires relatively high professional skills for students. Similarly, employers also attach great importance to the ability and qualifications of graduates. In this case Next, it is still useful to have relevant certificates. However, when choosing a certificate exam, you should be cautious and don't just follow the trend or have the idea that more is better.