Competencies urban planning students need to succeed in professional practices

Abstract

Purpose This paper focuses on the competencies and skills needed in preparing graduates of urban planning schools to meet the real-world challenges of professional practices. The present work explores the gap between skills and knowledge required to excel in the urban planning discipline and professional practices. Design/methodology/approach This research utilises a mix of qualitative and quantitative methods. This study depends on collecting data from descriptive and statistical analysis based on two streams. The first comes from a survey launched among students of urban planning. The second is interviews scheduled with academics that are also practitioners. Findings The results outline the missing correlation between what Egyptian students learn in schools of urban planning and professional practices. The findings show that academics, students, and graduates share the same experiences about the education system. Academics agreed that graduates need to be more skilful rather than knowledgeable. The discussion shows that the undefined role of the planner in Egypt influenced the mismatching between the current demand and supply of competencies and skills offered by planning schools. The concluded remarks mentioned that communication skills and negotiation skills are the most crucial skills for graduates, in addition to information finding and data-processing skills. Originality/value This research has particular advantages in presenting a model of competencies as results of scanning the expectations of Egyptian students and new graduates vs professional practices. The contribution is in answering the question of what skills students of the urban planning programs should learn in order to meet the continued changes in professional practices.

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“…As a testament to such merits, specifically in domains of architectural education and pedagogy, similar mixed-methods approaches to the one utilized in this research are increasingly being used (e.g. Salama, 2010; Ceylan and Soygenis, 2019; Qureshi, 2019; Megahed et al. , 2019; Saghafi, 2020; Kavakoglu et al.…”

“…As a testament to such merits, specifically in domains of architectural education and pedagogy, similar mixed-methods approaches to the one utilized in this research are increasingly being used (e.g. Salama, 2010;Ceylan and Soygenis, 2019;Qureshi, 2019;Megahed et al, 2019;Saghafi, 2020;Kavakoglu et al, 2021;Ilerisoy et al, 2021 to cite a few) to address "topical concerns that pertain to the goals, objectives, outcomes, structures and contents, as well as the instructional characteristics and delivery and assessment methods and techniques required for responsive and responsible architectural education" (Salama, 2019).…”

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“…Extending to other allied fields such as planning and engineering, the work of Megahed et al (2020) explores the competencies and skills required of future urban planning professionals to meet the real-world challenges of professional practice. They present a validated model of competencies resulting from scanning the expectations of Egyptian students and new graduates vs requirements of practicing urban planning.…”

“…Extending to other allied fields such as planning and engineering, the work of Megahed et al. (2020) explores the competencies and skills required of future urban planning professionals to meet the real-world challenges of professional practice.…”

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