Without chemical engineering we would have no cereals for breakfast, no cola in the can, no pills from the doctor, no discs for the CD player, no toothpaste in the tube. Or so Cork Institute of Technology's attractive college prospectus tells us.

John O'Shea, head of the college's department of chemical and process engineering, says that chemical engineers use the processes developed by chemists or biologists in the lab. They work on a large scale.

"Chemical engineers have to produce, for example, tonnes of medicines, thousands of gallons of soft drinks, tanker loads of petrol or shampoo, or miles and miles of video tape. The chemical engineer's job is to produce products on a commercial scale, to do safely and economically, to conserve natural resources and energy, and, at all times, to protect our environment," he explains.

Paddy O'Flynn of UCD says the message to second-level students is that chemical engineering is "fun, it's exciting and it's dynamic".