We support the SA Premier’s recent call in InDaily* for the tertiary education of more planners.
Without skilled planners, Australia will have difficulty addressing some of the most important issues confronting us including:
- Housing affordability;
- Climate change; and
- Sustained job creation.
Despite what has been the short-term closure of tertiary planning courses in South Australia, URPS hasn’t stopped employing young people. This is because we know that diversity broadens our pool of talent and makes our team stronger.
We have attracted some great young talent in Emily Mansfield, Michael Grogan and Saskia Sutton. Their different tertiary backgrounds in environmental science, planning and law brings different perspectives that benefit our clients.
Emily and Saskia recently put their environmental science and legal minds together to examine the requirements of the Environment, Protection Biodiversity Conservation Act. Michael has been providing much needed development assessment services to some key local councils, as well as smashing out planning projects in Victoria (where he hails from).
We are optimistic that the Universities will get their tertiary planning courses up and running again soon. In the meantime, we know that people from different backgrounds can still help us deliver planning excellence.
* “SA ‘Compromised’: Premier warns unis over lack of planning degrees”, InDaily, 12 April 2023 (Thomas Kelsall) https://indaily.com.au/news/2023/04/12/sa-compromised-premier-warns-unis-over-lack-of-planning-degrees/
