Rachel Hames
Education Outreach Manager, Chartered Institute of Civil Engineering Surveyors
Rachel began her career as a primary school teacher, fulfilling a childhood dream. For 3 years she loved helping children learn and grow, but soon sought a new challenge. That led her to the Chartered Institute of Civil Engineering Surveyors – despite knowing little about the field! Driven by curiosity, she has learned on the job ever since: from how roads and bridges are built to how teams turn big ideas into reality. Her journey shows it’s OK to change direction – sometimes, discovering what you don’t want leads to something exciting you never expected.
Surveying might be the STEM career you’ve never heard of – but it shapes the world around you…
Tomorrow’s Engineers Week is about opening our eyes to what’s really out there. If you’ve never heard of surveying, you’re definitely not alone – but it’s the STEM career that underpins every single piece of infrastructure we rely on.
When we talk about STEM careers, too often the spotlight falls on the obvious. Medicine, coding, formula 1, aerospace. All fantastic options, but what about the careers nobody tells young people about – the ones that quietly make every hospital, data centre, racetrack and airport possible?
Surveying is one of those careers and that ‘invisibility’ is a problem. Because without surveyors the major projects don’t happen. Or worse, they go wrong.
The STEM of surveying
Surveying isn’t one job – it’s a whole spectrum of STEM in action. Civil engineering surveyors primarily fall into 2 categories:
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Geospatial surveying is the science of measuring, mapping and modelling the world. It uses satellites and drones, smart mapping tools and virtual models called digital twins. It’s physics, maths, geography and computer science applied to millimetre accuracy. It’s how we know where to build, how high and how to do so safely.
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Commercial quantity surveying is the application of maths, economics, business studies and law to real projects. It’s digital cost modelling and data analysis. It’s what ensures hospitals, railways and flood defences are delivered on time and within budget.
Surveying brings STEM subjects out of the classroom and into the real world. There’s no abstract theory, it’s practical application with lasting impact.
Projects that matter
When you tell a 14-year-old that surveyors are working on HS2, the Lower Thames Crossing, the Haweswater Aqueduct Resilience Programme or new net zero hospitals for the NHS, something clicks.
These are projects they’ve seen on the news, projects that will outlast them, projects that communities depend on. Surveyors are behind the stadiums and facilities that will host the next Olympics, the retrofits that make homes healthier and cheaper to run, and the flood defences that keep families safe. That’s the breadth of surveying.
Skills that transfer everywhere
Surveying isn’t just a career – it’s a skillset for life. Young people gain digital competence in coding and data visualisation, develop exceptional problem solving ability, applying maths and science to real-world challenges.
They gain great communication skills as they work with engineers, architects and community groups. They have a genuine social impact and contribute to projects that directly improve people’s lives.
These are the skills employers say they can’t find. Surveying develops them all by default.
The challenge
So, here’s the issue. Not enough teachers, careers leaders and parents know surveying exists. STEM students are encouraged towards medicine, computing and aerospace, but often not towards the STEM of civil engineering.
What we know is that people can’t become what they can’t see. If young people never hear about surveying, they can’t choose it. We risk losing another generation of talent at a time when we need thousands more surveyors to deliver net zero infrastructure and resilient communities.
The opportunity
Surveying needs to be part of the conversation whenever we talk about STEM. There are great opportunities to go straight from school into a technical or degree apprenticeship in surveying, earning while you learn and working on major projects from day 1.
Schools need to introduce surveying alongside engineering, computing and science. Parents need to see surveying for what it is, a career with status, purpose and progression. Together we need to make sure surveying in on everyone’s radar.
Final word
If you’re a young person who loves maths, science, geography or computing, and you want a career where you can point to a bridge, a hospital, a stadium and say, 'I helped make that happen', then surveying should be top of your list.
Surveying is the STEM of civil engineering and it’s time we stop keeping it a secret!
Contact Rachel Hames on the CICES website for more information about the surveying profession.
Without surveyors, the major projects don’t happen. Or worse, they go wrong.
— Rachel Hames, Education Outreach Manager, Chartered Institute of Civil Engineering Surveyors
