Future Professions: A shovel of jobs for civil engineers

Quebec is in dire need of civil engineers to “provide love” for our aging infrastructure, which will provide employment by shoveling into new cohorts of construction professionals.

Also read: By 2025 more than 200 professions will need workers

“We grow up looking at these books. There is a mysterious part to them because of their magnificent size, ”explained Professor James Gaulet of the Department of Civil, Geological and Mining Engineering at the Polytechnic Montreal.

As our infrastructure stock begins to age, our engineers need to roll their hands to take care of it. Today, there is more time for conservation than for construction.

“We follow these behaviors over time to detect irregularities,” explains the expert in electronic monitoring of structures.

According to Emploi-Québec, civil engineers earn between $ 26.67 an hour and $ 60.44 an hour, based on the average they get from 2019 to 2021.

“It’s concrete”

For 24-year-old Blanche Laurent, a master’s student in civil engineering at Polytechnic Montreal, the lofty aspect of infrastructure weighs in on balance.

“I have always been fascinated by great things. I think them are so beautiful. It’s concrete, ”said the 24-year-old.

“I am interested in the analysis of structures, so why does this kind of thing continue to help me understand how to keep them as long as possible before or after construction,” she explains.

As the labor shortage intensifies day by day, offers are pouring in into the inboxes of students like Blanche Laurent.

“I already have requests on the right and left. These are big companies, especially through social networks like LinkedIn, ”she breathes.

According to his mentor James Gaulet, the needs in water, transportation and energy distribution will shine in the coming years.

“We’ll see it with the number of cones in Montreal. It’s not stopping. It’s going to be fast. When it’s damaged, do not ask yourself if you’re doing it, you have to do it, otherwise the city will stop,” he summed up.

-In collaboration with Charles Matthew