As a student, the wealth of potential career opportunities may seem overwhelming, and it can be difficult to understand what a job entails on a day-to-day basis. We know that attendance at school careers days to work experience for school pupils, and Employer’s event to days in practice and open studios provide insights into the realities of professional life (as well as entice new talent into the industry!).

We were recently joined by Eve in our Altrincham studio, who was keen to learn more about urban design ahead starting a degree in human geography next year. Her week of work experience centred on Ashton Public Realm Strategy, a commission which includes work with Tameside college as our commitment to realising social value. Working through a planned programme of activities related to this project enabled Eve to gain a thorough insight into urban design, whilst allowing her to work with the team and experience studio life. By the end of the week, she had collated a pack of her work into a presentation that she could take way. We hand over to Eve, to let you know more:

“It was an eye-opening work experience week here at Planit Altrincham. Everyone in the studio was welcoming and friendly, and I especially want to thank those who have taken time out to have conversations with me about urban design and landscape architecture. The collaborative nature of the work here in the office is a part of the job I had not been able to fully appreciate when researching urban design and landscape architecture careers online. Throughout this week I have been doing work on a public realm strategy project for Ashton-Under-Lyne, mentored by Louise. I started from the beginning, doing demographics research on the area, and creating urban grain, street analysis and space maps using Google Earth and Ordnance survey maps. Having drawn out the context of Ashton, I began to understand how information on urban space, green space, pedestrian routes etc. allow you to visualise ways to improve the public realm and movement in an area. To explore design ideas for the streetscape of the market square in Ashton, I sketched elements like street furniture, way finding and trees on tracing paper and placed these over a base drawing. Finally, I created a PowerPoint document to show all my completed work, learning that presentation is an important factor in delivering understandable and convincing ideas.”

It is gratifying to bump into a University student who gained work experience with us, or receive a job application from someone whose interest was caught at a school event; reaffirming the benefit to all of investing in and supporting education. We sponsor and directly contribute to PlacED Academy, led an RHS Green Plan It school programme and are always looking for more ways in which to spread the word and encourage young people to consider a career in our profession.