Are you interested in how our built and natural environments have changed over time and how they can be planned to respond to different social, economic and natural challenges? Do you want to study a professionally accredited degree that will lead to a variety of employment opportunities across the UK and beyond? Planning is concerned with managing and shaping change across our built and natural environments. As a planner, you can begin to have a real impact on places and peoples' lives by helping to deliver positive change across our towns, cities and neighbourhoods. By getting to know a place, its history, its challenges and its community, you can begin to develop exciting plans and visions for how future change can be approached and managed. By becoming a planner you will be able to develop a varied and highly rewarding career that provides wide-ranging opportunities across the public, private and voluntary sectors; every project, place or community you will need to interact with will be different.

The course provides an effective springboard for a variety of careers; the skills and knowledge you will gain through the course will be attractive to many employers whatever the role. If you decide to become a planner then opportunities at the moment are very good; indeed, there is a projected shortage! Planners today work in a variety of places for a wide range of employers in the public, private and voluntary sectors. While the majority of our graduates choose to forge a career within planning, the degree will also provide an excellent foundation for many careers linked to the environment, such as within housing, tourism, economic development, regeneration, and environmental protection. The programme also provides a solid ground for careers in research and teaching. Opportunities in the public sector include working for government departments or agencies (such as English Heritage, Highways Agency, Natural England or the Environment Agency), or in local planning authorities. By their nature, planning authorities offer a variety of location and opportunity from large city authorities to those centred on national parks. You may also be interested in working in the private sector, either for large companies or developers (such as major retail chains or house builders), a multi-disciplinary firm, or as a planner in a more specialist consultancy. Recent graduates have gained employment at: Barton Willmore Crest Nicholson PCL Planning Pegasus Planning Persimmon Peter Brett Associates Savills Turley Associates WYG Working with the voluntary sector could include opportunities with such groups as the National Trust or Shelter.