CARMEL Martin is a chemical engineer who, at 23 years old, thinks the job and money "just brilliant" and is "heaving great sighs of relief that I did the right thing, made the right choices". The day Education and Living spoke to her she was off to receive the yearly Institute of Chemical Engineers' award for her final year design project. There seems little doubt that she's found the right work niche in life.
She wasn't always so certain. Growing up in Douglas, Cork, she didn't give a thought to chemical or any other kind of engineering. The second youngest of six children, she began her school days in Eglantine national school on the Douglas Road and went from there to Ashton School - "multi-denominational and co-ed" as a day pupil.
"I loved it there; absolutely loved it. The sports facilities were very good and I was on the school junior and senior hockey teams. In my first, second and third years I was student of the year but didn't know what I wanted to do. Science and maths were my big interests and when it came to choosing for the Leaving, I opted for Irish, English, maths, German, physics, chemistry and biology. I'd no problem with maths, I loved it - chemistry, physics and biology were no bother either." By the time it came to filling in the CAO form she had a good idea what she wanted to do and applied for genetic engineering in Queen's University, Belfast.
Life is nothing if not complicated, however, and she turned it down because of her mother's worries about her living in Belfast. "It was then a case of going to UCC or the RTC (now the CIT). I applied for medical science and biochemistry - I didn't put engineering down at all. After the Leaving, I was offered biochemistry in UCC but decided I didn't want it, that I wanted something more specific with a lot more maths content. So I decided on engineering and, since I hadn't put it on the CAO form and wanted to stay in the system, I repeated the Leaving. I did the repeat in Deerpark CBS which is an allboys school where they run a repeat Leaving year. I dropped Irish and took all honours in the subjects I'd studied the year before. I did grand and got an honour in maths and put engineering down on the CAO form the second time around."
SHE GOT the place she wanted in the CIT (the points requirement was 465, Carmel got a more than respectable 495) and in September l995 began a four-year degree course in chemical engineering. "There were seven women in a class of 30 in first year but that sort of male domination in the area is changing. In the year ahead of me there was only one girl in the class but in the year after me there were about 12 and that trend is continuing. I didn't know any different though and the fact of more men in the class didn't bother me - after all I'd come from co-ed and all-boy schools."
Her degree course, in chemical and process engineering, prepared her for "work in any chemical industry. You could go into design, as in designing new plants, or could be working in validation - starting up new processes plus modifications to existing processes. While those are essentially what it's about, it's different for everyone."
The first year of the course involved "lots of chemistry and maths". The second year "got into the engineering aspects, as in thermo dynamics and heat transfer". In her third year Martin did even more engineering subjects as well as laboratory work and tours of plants - "to give us a feel of what we would be doing".
The summer of her third year was spent on work placement with ICI in Chester, England. Her fourth and final year was "project orientated with design and research projects to be done as well as lectures. The head of the department, John O'Shea, was really good about setting up job interviews and organised people to come in and see us so that those on the course were actually getting jobs from January on in the last year."
For Carmel Martin this meant a job with Warner Lambert in Ringaskiddy as a graduate engineer. She's enthusiastic, and excited by all that is going on at the plant at the moment. "Development right now is huge on a tableting plant for lipitor blending and packaging of a product made at the plant as well expansions on chemical buildings 1 and 2." Her work involves validation and commissioning - "which is overseeing the handover of equipment being installed by a contractor and then ensuring it's installed properly, as well as overseeing the start-up of the equipment. It's a brilliant job and there's lots of scope down here. I know now I was right to choose chemical engineering."
FOR THE future she'll definitely stay in industry and will "eventually become a senior engineer and travel a bit as well, hopefully in Asia". Her work hours are regular, nine-to-five daily and being one of few women on the job doesn't bother her. She hopes to work her way up in Warner Lambert. "They encourage this and you can do further training and education with the company if you want to. I always knew there would be good job prospects in engineering and that it would enable me to stay in Cork, that it would make staying at home an option rather than something I had to do."
She still lives with her parents and in her free time does gymnastic coaching.
