Career Information

This area on the NIFS site  is designed to give those interested in a career in forensic science background information about forensic science, the structure of forensic science in Australia and the qualifications required to be competitive for employment in the various forensic disciplines. Entering each of the sections will help to build an overall picture. 

• Forensic Science in Australia
• Disciplines and Qualifications
• Career Options
• Universities and TAFE Colleges Offering Forensic Courses
• State/Territory Service Providers
• A Day with the Forensic Sciences
• The Job Guide
• GoScience Career Profile

Careers in Forensic Science

The major difficulty in becoming a forensic scientist is not primarily in obtaining a relevant qualification, but in the scarcity of employment opportunities.  In Australia there are just over a thousand forensic scientists in a very stable environment.  Consequently, there are very few vacant positions per year.  This situation often results in large numbers of applicants for each position advertised, where people with basic qualifications can be at a disadvantage to those with master’s degrees and above.

In the NIFS Resource Register database, there are 150 different skills listed.  Obviously many qualifications would cover a group of these skills.  However, the extent of the list indicates that there are many different disciplines within the forensic science field, which provide interesting and exciting careers.

The best advice for the secondary student would be to select science subjects in which they are interested and to try to get the best possible University entrance score.

Following selection of an appropriate course, the next target would be to complete the qualification with a view to undertake postgraduate study where appropriate.

Finally don’t forget there are many industries that use forensic scientists but are not necessarily in the criminal investigation fields. Forensic or investigative scientists are used by the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Human Services, State Chemistry Laboratories, Workcover, Private laboratories and Insurance agencies. Many big companies also use investigative scientists for determining sources of contamination in products or product failures. So students should not be too narrow in their aspirations.

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Related Pages;

Overview of Forensic Science | Disciplines in Forensic Science | Forensic Courses | Forensic Service Providers

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