ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR WARWICK PEARSE: The graduate diplomas in occupational health and safety, and environmental health offered at QUT are great degrees for students who want to enter industry with challenging and interesting jobs. The courses are open to all students who have completed undergraduate studies in science-related fields. We have a number of students who've come into the grad dips from nursing, engineering, science, health sciences; also we'll accept students who have had extensive professional experience in the area.

One of the really good things about this postgraduate course is that it's very flexible. You can do it internally or externally. If you're an internal student you can also access all the external material. We understand that students doing this course often have very busy lives outside the course, so there's a lot of consideration given in the way the course is delivered, to be flexible.

Both these degrees are well recognised by industry and graduates generally have no problem in finding a job. In fact, industry recruitment agencies often contact us to find suitable candidates for existing vacancies.

Graduates from the OHS degree often get employment as safety advisers and safety managers in mining, construction, health industry and a whole range of industries. Graduates from environmental health often get positions in councils as environmental health officers and with state governments. The great thing about this course is that the students are often working in industry, and the course is set up so that there's an ability to share information and there's a lot of interaction between students. This is done on the web and also face-to-face in lectures for internal students.

If you're thinking about enrolling in the Grad Dip EH or the Grad Dip OHS, I can only recommend it. I've been working in this area for many years and found it very rewarding and very fulfilling. It's a great career option.