Careers and Employability

As a Natural Sciences student at Lancaster, the technical and practical skills that you gain can be transferred across many industries, making you highly attractive to employers.

You will be highly versatile and adaptable, with a well-rounded university education, opening up a wide range of career opportunities; many employers prefer a varied, multidisciplinary degree to a specialisation in one field.  You will also be able to take advantage of the growing demand in research organisations, industry and businesses for graduates who are able to utilise multidisciplinary scientific knowledge in their work. Our graduates develop skills in:

  • Lateral thinking
  • Independent reasoning
  • Evaluation and interpretation
  • Problem solving in an analytical and logical way
  • Numeracy
  • ICT
  • Project management
  • Time management
  • Communication

Our dedicated Careers and Employability Service is also available to give you support in achieving your chosen career for as long as you need it, and is on hand to offer advice and information during your time with us. Our staff at The Base will be happy to give you any help and advice you may need regarding your career; this might include researching potential opportunities, developing skills for employment, meeting employers and more. Staff are available for one-to-one appointments in The Base from 10:00-4:30 Monday-Friday, or alternatively you can email ‘Ask Careers’ for answers to specific questions. The Careers service holds a number of Careers Fairs throughout the year, which students often find invaluable.

Please see individual departmental pages for more information on the career paths that past graduates have taken. 

Scientific Careers

  • Academic and industrial research
  • Aerospace
  • Agrochemical
  • Biomedical
  • Climate change
  • Clinical and health science
  • Conservation
  • Defence
  • Energy
  • Environmental consultancy
  • Forensics
  • Geographic information systems
  • Government research institutes
  • IT and software design
  • Museum curatorship
  • Nanotechnology
  • Oceanography
  • Pharmaceuticals
  • Science journalism and PR
  • Teaching and telecommunications
  • Laboratory supervisor or manager
  • Product developer
  • Materials scientist

Non-Scientific Careers

Our past graduates have also gone into

  • Banking
  • Teaching
  • Consultancy
  • Medicine
  • Research and further study
  • Accountancy
  • Administration
  • Law
  • The armed forces
  • Banking
  • The civil service
  • Management (both general and financial)
  • IT
  • Publishing
  • Retail
  • Telecommunications
  • Consultancy
  • Marketing and education
  • Purchasing and patenting