A town planner career involves designing and implementing the development of urban areas, towns and villages. This involves coming up with various policies on issues such as transportation and housing, influencing architectural designs, controlling carbon emissions hence improving use of energy and protecting the environment from degradation.
How to Become a Town Planner
Get a High School Diploma then tertiary qualification. This includes a four year degree program in planning. Alternatively, one can have an undergraduate qualification in any field and a relevant postgraduate degree in planning.
Membership in a professional organization is an added advantage.
Types, Description, Information
Your career path as a town planner can diverge into various industries. For instance, you can be involved in urban planning, climate change planning, statutory planning, or project management planning for instance during major sports events such as the Olympics or World Cup.
Qualifications: Courses, Training, Certification
You have the option of pursuing short training courses offered as certification online programs or pursuing full time academic qualifications in order to have a town planner career. Some of the training courses you can pursue include Bachelor of Science in Environmental Planning, City and Regional Planning or Bachelor of Arts in Town Planning. There are also diploma courses such as Planning and Regeneration and Spatial Planning. Degree courses can take four or five years to complete.
Long distance training programs are another option one can pursue. Just ensure that the training course you pursue is accredited by the Royal Town Planning Institute.
The objective of the classes in the classes should be to enable one to problem solve and design through the use of computers.
Schools, Colleges, Universities
As a prerequisite to admission to a planning training course, you have to present your high school transcripts. It will be an added advantage if you did well in English, Math and Geography in High School. You will also need to pass entrance exams from the college or university to be admitted for the course.
University of Southern California in California
Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Massachusetts
University of Southern Pennsylvania in Pennsylvania
University of Illinois in Illinois
Cornell University –New York
Job Opportunities, Salaries and Recruitment
In a job search for a town planner career, it will be important to know that the various employers include governments, non governmental organizations and private consultants.
The average pay for town planners is $57,000.
The job outlook for town planners is good since many professional town planners are needed as more and more urban centers come up.
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what is the future prospects of town planning education.