Defining the Planning Skill Set: Resources for Students

At the beginning of semester students are signing up for classes and planning their degrees. Lately, a question I have been asked quite frequently is which classes will make new planners most employable? Students ask if computer aided design or GIS will be key. However, surveys of planning practitioners show that a far more basic set of skills is important—skills in communication, information analysis and synthesis, political savvy, and basic workplace competencies and attitudes. Below, I highlight three of these studies from across three decades:

2 minute read

August 31, 2008, 8:19 AM PDT

By Ann Forsyth

At the beginning of semester students are signing up for
classes and planning their degrees. Lately, a question I have been asked quite
frequently is which classes will make new planners most employable? Students
ask if computer aided design or GIS will be key. However, surveys of planning
practitioners show that a far more basic set of skills is important-skills in communication,
information analysis and synthesis, political savvy, and basic workplace competencies
and attitudes.

Below, I highlight three of these studies from across three decades:

A 1976 Journal of the
American Institute of Planners article, "Planners in Transition" by Donald
A. Schon, Nancy Sheldon Cremer, Paul Osterman, and Charles Perry, was based on
a survey of MIT Alumni from the 1960-1971 period. It found by far the most
important skill was the "ability to produce clear reports, memos, news releases
etc" followed by synthesizing materials, working with politicians, negotiating,
understanding power relations, working with clients, formulating problems and
plan how to answer questions, establishing trust with local groups, finding
information, and discovering client needs. There were more skills listed,
including some technical ones such as statistics and spatial design, but they
ranked lower than these more general competencies.

Ethan Seltzer and Connie Ozawa's (2002) Journal of Planning Education and Research article titled "Clear
Signals" was based on a survey of 310 planners in California,
Florida, New Jersey,
Minnesota, and Maryland. Focusing on the skills needed by
new hires, planning practitioners again described the need for very general
skills: working well with the public and with colleagues, being a self-starter,
being able to finish work on time and on budget, and understanding public needs.
The survey asked open ended questions about additional skills-- writing, public
speaking, and a good attitude came out on top.

More recently Linda Dalton's (2007) Journal of the American Planning Association article, "Preparing Planners
for the Breadth of Practice," reports on a survey of 681 planning alumni and
members of planning organizations. Respondents were asked whether their work
frequently or often involved certain activities. The top ranked activities
were: prepare reports (95%), organize/run meetings (76%), public presentations
(74%), client interaction (74%), collect data (66%), administer program/unit
(65%), analyze data (62%), strategize to get plans adopted (60%). develop
alternatives (60%), and read and prepare maps (60%).

These skills form the core of a basic planning skill set: communicating
with others, analyzing information, working with politics and power relations,
and working responsibly and energetically in the planning team. That is not to
say that learning to create maps or use advanced statistical programs is
unimportant-they are key sources of planning information-but beginning planners
should not skip over the basic skills.

Careers Higher Education Planning Education

Ann Forsyth

Trained in planning and architecture, Ann Forsyth is a professor of urban planning at the Harvard Graduate School of Design. From 2007-2012 she was a professor of city and regional planning at Cornell. She taught previously at at the University of Minnesota, directing the Metropolitan Design Center (2002-2007), Harvard (1999-2002), and the University of Massachusetts (1993-1999) where she was co-director of a small community design center, the Urban Places Project. She has held short-term positions at Columbia, Macquarie, and Sydney Universities.

I love the variety of courses, many practical, and all richly illustrated. They have inspired many ideas that I've applied in practice, and in my own teaching. Mary G., Urban Planner

I love the variety of courses, many practical, and all richly illustrated. They have inspired many ideas that I've applied in practice, and in my own teaching.

Mary G., Urban Planner

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