Online Civil Engineering Schools & Colleges

Civil Engineering Online Colleges

Degrees that prepare you for civil engineering are offered through a variety of schools. Typically, you'll need at least a four-year degree to be able to make a start in the field. Unfortunately, there are not a broad number of online civil engineering degrees available, but you can find rudimentary programs that can help you to gain basic drafting knowledge. Most of these can help you learn how to develop design strategies and prepare technical drawings, but offer short-term training. This kind of brief introduction to drafting could aid you in deciding whether you want to enter a four-year program and pursue a full-fledged civil engineering career or see if you might be able to find a job with your new skills alone. Your best option to complete a four-year program would likely be to check with an on-ground school or university.

Civil engineers working in the U.S. earned mean annual wages of $82,280, according to 2010 BLS data. The three highest-paying industries, from most to least, were: commercial and industrial machinery repair and maintenance (excluding automotive and electronic); hardware, and plumbing and heating equipment and supplies merchant wholesalers; and oil and gas extraction. Civil engineering jobs are expected to grow by 24 percent, faster than the average for all occupations. Some civil engineers eventually pursue engineering faculty positions or work in research and development. Others move into engineering supervisory or managerial, other managerial or sales jobs. Managers, in general, earned mean annual wages exceeding $100,000. If you have at least a two-year training in drafting and are knowledgeable in the field, you could go to work as an architectural or civil drafter. These workers earned mean annual wages of $48,740, according to the BLS, and the field is predicted to grow 9 percent during the 2008-2018 decade. You could be fortunate enough to find work as a drafter for a company that offers to help pay for completion of a four-year degree.

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