Preschoolers put on a path to built environment careers in new key agreement

A new pathway to get South Australian children from preschool age onwards into built-environment careers such as surveying will be developed under a key agreement reached between the education and built-environment sectors.

The agreement outlines how students from preschool to high school will be able to acquire the training and skills needed to become surveyors, planners, architects, property valuers, conveyancers and designers.

South Australia’s Department for Education will work with state government built-environment experts to build on relevant curriculum such as geography, design and technology, as well as looking at ways for students to obtain first-hand industry experience.

“This partnership will immerse students into the world of the built environment professions, providing real world applications to their learnings,” said South Australia’s Surveyor-General Bradley Slape.

“It will promote an awareness of the professions that may lead to tertiary educated graduates and assist in addressing the skill shortages across our industries.”

Key elements of the initiative include: 

• Developing student understanding of built environment career opportunities and tertiary education requirements;
• Increasing access to built environment-based teaching and learning activities and resources; and
• Establishing work experience, professional engagement and trainee programs.

An industry group – established to bring together stakeholders to build the study pathways and deal with the skills shortage – will collaborate on the agreement, and the presence of the group is already having an impact, with Flinders University making the decision to introduce a new Bachelor of Surveying from next year, as well as TAFE SA expanding its tertiary options with a new planning diploma.

“This new partnership will inspire students to explore careers in the built environment and shape the next generation of architects, planners, surveyors, property valuers, conveyancers and designers,” said South Australian Government Architect Kirsteen Mackay.

“Learning more about the places, structures and systems that determine the shape of our built environment will help build students’ understanding of, and investment in, a sustainable and resilient built environment.”