Nicola Viselli was interested in planning, but at first, she wasn’t sure about committing to a master’s degree.
Instead, she enrolled in the UTS Graduate Certificate in Planning, which provides an entry pathway into the master’s. It was a great way to test the water of postgraduate study.
And, from early in her degree, she was hooked.
I liked how the course offered a spiral learning style. It started with introductory subjects to ease you into the course and set solid foundations in planning.
The second year was about adding onto the same concepts and applying them in new ways, and the third year was focused on honing the knowledge and empowering students to have the confidence to challenge planning practice and policy.
Nicola found that postgraduate planning study with UTS offers a combination of real-world scenarios, teamwork, case studies, field trips and theory that deliver a truly holistic view of the discipline. The curriculum is delivered by highly experienced teaching staff, many with current industry experience, and guest lectures from experts from across the property and planning sectors – ensuring every student’s learning is relevant, contemporary, and immediately applicable in the workplace.
Students work on assessments that mirror real world planning projects, from urban renewal masterplans to greenfield developments. Indeed the master’s course is a fully-comprehensive exploration of the discipline – so much so it’s accredited by the Planning Institute of Australia.
It’s no wonder UTS graduates are highly employable within the planning sector.
"It was very clear from the recruitment processes for planning roles that I needed a higher qualification to support myself as a planner," she says.
"What I was looking for was to skill up to get that job in planning, and I felt like the UTS course was good for that."
Her gut feeling was right: partway through her master’s degree, she was offered a job as a strategic planner at Wollondilly Shire Council. Today, she’s working in a similar role at Inner West Council and says that having a formal postgraduate qualification holds a lot of weight among employers.
"I do know the master’s degree helped me get to the next job," she says.
"I’m learning from the day-to-day of my role and then complementing that with different perspectives and different subjects from my course."
"I’ve got quite a well-rounded knowledge base now and I think that’s been helpful."
