We are looking for enthusiastic and knowledgeable volunteers and STEM Ambassadors to support us with this exciting campaign. If you could help us to champion chemical and process engineering and encourage more young people from all backgrounds into our profession, please review the current opportunities or get in touch with the team to share your thoughts and ideas.

Resources and support

The outreach and careers toolkit provides a range of materials, branded with DiscoverChemEng, that you can use at careers fairs, including the new virtual work experience programme. In events and opportunities, you’ll find activities for specific age groups in schools.

Evaluating your activities is about understanding the impact your outreach or careers activity is having with young people.

We would like all volunteers working with children to read our 'Safeguarding and protection' guide.

If you are looking to provide ongoing support for schools and colleges, you can find out about roles including Enterprise Advisor and school governor in partnerships.

Some of the events and activities that volunteers support in schools and colleges:

• presenting at a schools careers fair
• giving a talk to a local school about your career pathway
• hosting a visit from a local school to your place of work
• supporting a school to take part in a national engineering competition
• supporting IChemE staff to develop educational materials
• mentoring students as they complete their own engineering research project
• being a mentor on the Davidson Inventors Challenge

To become a schools engagement volunteer, you'll find a link to apply for this role and other volunteering roles, in the latest volunteer roles.

Updated careers guidance for schools in England

In May 2025 the DfE updated its statutory careers guidance for schools in England Careers guidance and access for education and training providers which will undoubtedly lead to many more requests, to industry, from teachers who are required to start implementing the changes from September 2025. This guidance, which is potentially challenging for schools to implement will help to develop future talent pools and, in the case of our industry, help to embed a clearer understanding of chemical and process engineering. Labour committed before the election to requiring two weeks of work experience for all young people and the new guidance sets out how this will work under the banner of ‘Modern work experience’. The document states the two weeks should be broken down into one week’s worth of 'activities' in years 7 to 9 and a week’s worth of placement in years 10 to 11. Schools must also provide at least 6 encounters with approved providers of technical and vocational education.

The Gatsby benchmarks (first developed in 2014 to define world-class careers education, information, advice and guidance for young people in England) have also been updated to emphasise the importance of ‘meaningful’ encounters with employers. Schools that implement the benchmarks ensure young people are career ready and their career interests better align with labour market trends. IChemE’s virtual work experience and the new DiscoverChemEngLIVE roadshows will all count towards the new approach to work experience.

At the same time, the Careers & Enterprise Company are piloting the Modern work experience (Equalex) approach of every young person having access to high-quality, workplace experiences, during secondary education.

To support these ambitions and to raise the profile of chemical and process engineering as a career option, we need more member volunteers and companies, across different sectors, to get involved in the DiscoverChemEng campaign. Whether this through interacting with young people at a school careers fair, through hosting school visits or in-person work experience or contributing to virtual work experience, there are many opportunities to get involved. Find out more in Events and opportunities and Partnerships or email discoverchemeng@icheme.org.