Explore career options
School of Architecture, Building and Civil Engineering (ABCE)
Urban Planning
Your careers team
Careers Network is here to support you by providing information, advice, guidance, events and opportunities to enable you to secure placements, work experience, self-employment and graduate careers.
Working closely with your academic school, our team of experts ensures that every student has access to careers advice. As well as large careers fairs, we hold sector-specific events, involving employers and º¬Ðß²ÝÊÓƵ alumni, to help you make valuable connections and secure high-quality placements and graduate roles.
To find out more about what we do and how we can support you, visit Meet the teams.
Details of the Placements Officers for your school can be found here.
We look forward to supporting you throughout your º¬Ðß²ÝÊÓƵ journey.
Key skills developed during your degree
An Urban Planning degree develops many skills that are valued not only by employers in design, planning, and regeneration, but also by those in a variety of sectors, including financial services, management and information technology.
- Ability to research, and analyse and interpret data
- Analytical and decision-making ability
- Communication skills, written and oral
- Creativity and problem-solving ability
- Critical thinking and the ability to evaluate design, plans and projects
- Finance and policy development awareness
- Interpersonal and team-working skills
- Knowledge of planning processes, law and housing policy
- Negotiation and making a reasoned argument
- Numeracy and computer literacy
- Organisation, time-management and planning skills
- Professional report writing and presentation
- Strategic way of thinking
- Understanding of effective leadership skills and management
- Understanding of health and safety
Career options
Career areas related to Urban Planning courses:
- Building Control Surveyor
- Historic Buildings Inspector/Conservation Officer
- Housing Manager/Officer
- Local Government Officer
- Town Planner
- Transport Planner
- Urban Designer
Careers where your degree would be useful:
- Architectural Technologist
- Civil Service Administrator
- Community Development Worker
- Environmental Manager
- Estates Manager
- Fire Risk Assessor
- Landscape Architect
- Planning and Development Surveyor
- Sustainability Consultant
- Remember 60% of graduate roles are open to all disciplines.
You can also look at other course pages depending on other modules you have taken and/or are interested in.
Further study
Further study at º¬Ðß²ÝÊÓƵ:
The School of Civil and Building Engineering offers postgraduate courses in a variety of disciplines.
The School also offers PhD / MPhil research opportunities
Further study elsewhere:
Postgraduate taught programmes:
PhD opportunities:
Where do graduates go?
What do º¬Ðß²ÝÊÓƵ Urban Planning graduates do?
This is a new course with its first students graduating in summer 2025.
Graduates from The School of Architecture, Building and Civil Engineering as a whole have gone on to destinations where:
Employers included:
AECOM, Balfour Beatty, Barclays, British Army, David Morley Architects, Eurovia, Kier Group, Laing O’Rourke, Mace, Mott MacDonald, Softcat and Vinci.
Roles included:
Architectural Assistant, Civil Engineer, Commercial Manager, Construction Manager, Design Consultant, Insurance Underwriter, Highway Engineer, Networking & Security Specialist, Quantity Surveyor, Site Manager, Software Developer and Structural Engineer.
Further Study included:
Graduates from The School of Architecture, Building and Civil Engineering, as a whole, undertook postgraduate courses at Coventry University, º¬Ðß²ÝÊÓƵ, Manchester Metropolitan University, The Royal College of Art and The University of Nottingham.
Further information
For more information on companies graduates work for, industry links and career opportunities, visit the subject area page of the University website. You can also find out what our students say in our student stories of personal journeys through and beyond º¬Ðß²ÝÊÓƵ and track the career journeys and º¬Ðß²ÝÊÓƵ experiences of some of our alumni.
Resources to research career areas
- Institution of Civil Engineers: careers advice
- Indeed: what jobs can you do with an urban planning degree?
- Prospects: overview of property and construction
- Prospects: overview of transport and logistics
- Prospects: what can I do with my degree in urban planning? (Includes job descriptions, salary and working conditions, details of employers, where to find vacancies and more)
- TargetJobs: construction and property - industry overview
- RICS: Surveying Careers Guide
- RTPI: Become a Planner
Resources to find work experience, placements and graduate jobs
Students have the option of taking a year-long placement in industry which provides an invaluable opportunity to develop their professional and technical skills further.
Additionally, we advertise many opportunities for summer internships and encourage students to gain experience valuable in the workplace through extra-curricular activities such as volunteering, committee memberships, work-shadowing and part-time work.
- See Target Connect on our website for vacancies and opportunities
Other useful links:
- Architects' Journal
- Building4jobs
- Local Government Jobs
- Planning Jobs
- Prospects:jobs search
- Gradcracker
- Matchtech
- Target jobs
- EDT Placements
- Engineering Jobs
- RateMyPlacement
- STEM Women
- ICE Recruit
- Estates Gazette
- LABC - Building control jobs
- RICS Recruit
- English Heritage Jobs
- Environment Jobs
- IHBC
- Inside Housing - Jobs
- jobsgopublic
- LG Jobs
- Shelter - housing charity advertising paid and volunteering opportunities.
- Jobs-in-transport.com
- Local Transport Today
- TPS Job Vacancies
- Urban Design Group Jobs - membership charity
Professional bodies, sector and labour market information (LMI)
Professional bodies:
- Chartered Association of Building Engineers (CABE)
- Chartered Institution of Highways and Transportation (CIHT)
- Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport (CILT)
- Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB)
- Institute of Historic Buildings Conservation (IHBC)
- Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE)
- Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS)
- Royal Town Planning Institute (RPTI)
- Society for Protection of Ancient Buildings (SPAB)
Sector and labour market information (LMI):