Across Ireland and the UK there is a demonstrated need for qualified planning and surveying professionals in public and private roles. In Ireland alone there are currently 1,500 vacancies in planning and surveying related posts. Five hundred of these are specifically planning related. Therefore, there are employment opportunities in the sector.
So what is planning?
Planning teaches you how to make sense of a lot of complicated information, how to stay abridged of ongoing advances in policy and debate, how to read places and how to engage people. Undergraduate students often ask why they would study planning. The answer often lies in asking them if they care about where they live, how their town is designed and what facilities they require. Planning is the machine that allows these things to happen.
Populations nationally and internationally face significant challenges including attracting investment, creating jobs, protecting the environment, balancing energy demands, addressing housing supply, providing adequate transport links along with providing local amenities, and protecting communities’ overall health and wellbeing. Planning is central to these activities.
Planning is a dynamic profession, it is not static, and planners must pivot and react to changes in development. The climate crisis and the associated biodiversity crisis mean the focus on planning is very much engaged with sustainability and the production of renewable energy. Therefore, the profession also contributes to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.
Based on this changing face of the profession, their training and education must include new thinking and training directions. For example, traditionally planners did not have an ‘economic remit’ however, with the arrival of Urban Regeneration Development Fund (URDF ) and Rural Regeneration and Development Fund (RRDF ) planners now have to prepare competitive funding bids and their training needs to reflect this skill.
Overall, it needs to be understood that planners are a positive force in modern society and they focus on how we can transform and improve our towns, villages, and communities to contribute to their sustainable present and future development.
Housing challenges
Across Ireland and the UK there has been an awareness that the pandemic offered the opportunity to rethink challenges around planning, place-making and housing. The Royal Town Planning Institute released a policy paper in March 2021 highlighting the opportunities and challenges for the profession, including reflections on the role of planning in creating prosperous and vibrant societies.
Professional surveyors and planners have a role in mediating the challenges in the housing sector. Earlier this month the Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland(SCSI )released a report on housing costs in Ireland.
While the report is extensive and covers a wide range of opportunities and challenges in the sector, a central dimension lies in the cost of housing for people who have significant earnings, yet are failing to get a foot on the property ladder. The case study analysis shows that a nurse and garda with combined gross earnings of €89,000 could not afford to buy a three-bed semi-detached home in the Greater Dublin Area or in Galway.
The couple would fall short of being able to afford the home by €62,000 in the Greater Dublin Area and €22,000 in Galway. There is an affordability crisis in the system as the cost of supply is not matching the ability to purchase these homes, mainly due to under supply. The resourcing of the Planning system, through creating new graduates in particular, has a central role in how, as a society, we address these challenges.
Planning as a Career
In July 2023 a survey by the Irish Planning Institute (IPI ), the professional membership body for spatial planners in Ireland, revealed that both public organisation/local authorities (62% ) as well as private/semi-state organisations (60% ) face significant challenges with retaining and recruiting new staff.
Many respondents highlighted the perceived difficulties in attracting new talent to the workforce and the lack of understanding that the public has of the profession. Data gathered from the University of Galway suggests that planning graduates which to return to the communities from which they are from to work therefore, there are difficulties in retaining existing staff as they follow planning roles closer to home.
University of Galway offers professional Planning Qualification
In mid-2023 The University of Galway's Discipline of Geography announced the successful accreditation of its one-year MA Planning and Development by the Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland (SCSI ) as part of their planning and development professional pathway. This accreditation will mean students who graduate from the programme can become chartered members of the SCSI.
The mission of MA Planning and Development is to support routes to professional qualification and chartered status in the Planning and Development Pathway and to enable participants to prepare for a career in related fields. This programme is now creating professional graduates that can pursue these career opportunities.
Now taking applications
For further information on the MA Planning and Development contact Programme Director Therese Conway at [email protected]
University of Galway Postgraduate Open Day will take place on campus 12-3pm on February 6th.
