A Day in the Life: Aisling Brophy, Air and Emissions Technician

Aisling started at SOCOTEC as a trainee in April 2025, before progressing to become a technician. As a woman in a male-dominated field, Aisling talks about her path to this career, as well as the support she has had from the SOCOTEC team.

Aisling on… her journey to working for SOCOTEC

“I've been working at SOCOTEC since last April. I was brought on as a trainee and after passing the MCERTS exams, I was promoted to Air & Emissions Monitoring Technician.

“I studied Botany at Trinity College in Dublin. I didn’t want to study environmental science because the course involved dissecting animals – my dad was a beef farmer and truck driver, bringing animals to the factory, which as a kid isn’t great craic to come along to. But in Botany, we shared a lot of classes with environmental science without any animal dissections, which I really liked.

“After working in Kew Botanical Gardens for a bit, I decided that life in London wasn’t for me, so I went to TU Dublin for my Masters in Sustainable Development. We had a few courses on Environmental Law and Policy and I really enjoyed that, which is why I went on to pursue this as a career, checking that regulations are adhered to.”

Aisling on… being an Air & Emissions Technician

“In Ireland, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is responsible for managing air quality and emissions. The EPA gives companies an environmental license and our job is to go and make sure those companies are holding up their end of the bargain, ensuring compliance with the license and regulations.

“Sometimes we're hired directly by those companies to check the emissions limits on their licence, and then sometimes we're contracted directly by the EPA to check other people's work as surprise inspections. If a company has hired a different air and emissions testing company, the EPA may send us to ensure their elements reports are accurate and that the company is passing.

“As well as monitoring for compliance, the other side of the job is fixing equipment, making sure supplies are up to date, and writing reports.”

“I always like doing like field work. In college, we did a lot of ecology field work – taking samples and carrying out ecology surveys. There are a lot of bogs in Ireland and they’re very protected, so I did a lot of field work with them. I may not be doing ecology now, but I still enjoy going out to all the different sites and getting involved in practical work.

“Air and Emissions is an interesting field to get into because it’s something that affects everyone.”

Aisling on… her favourite aspects of the job

“I like that it's very different day-to-day. You might go back to the same site on a monthly or quarterly basis, but you might be testing for a different thing even on that same site every month."

“I like that there's some challenges with it – a lot of proactive problem solving is required. At each site there are different challenges we need to tackle depending on the equipment and environment.”

Aisling on… being a woman in this industry

“Most of the time there aren’t any issues, but some of the sites can still be quite tricky as a woman, it’s annoying when I have to find someone to ask for a key to get to the women's bathrooms, whereas the men's bathrooms are just open.

“The lads on the team here are great. Everyone is really friendly and approachable. The team is full of people who are talented in different areas and they’re all happy to help you learn and show you the ropes – I’ve never been scared of asking anyone for help even if it’s a basic question.”