August 16 2005

Professor Peter Roberts, the new chairman of the Academy of Sustainable Communities (ASC) wants to see skills for creating sustainable communities appear on the school curriculum. “If you ask a child what they want to be, they’ll say, an astronaut or a pilot, but none of them will say I want to work in regeneration or any of the professions associated with it. There’s a fantastic opportunity in this field, there’s a huge diversity of careers,” In June this year the Deputy Prime Minister announced Professor Roberts appointment as the inaugural chair of ASC.
Established in response to the Egan Review, the ASC will not be directly responsible for training itself. It will, however, assist other bodies. “In terms of professional training we are trying to link up with Universities UK in order to create common modules, which can be dropped into courses on architecture, economic development, urban studies, planning and design. The universities won’t have to spend any extra money on preparation time or effort in creating the component because we’ll do that for them,” said Roberts. For those who have already passed through the education system, the training will feed into CPO.
Roberts admitted training would be difficult for non-professionals who are often expected to deliver in the long term what professionals have suggested in the short term. “There will be common training at regional centre’s of excellence. We are also looking at the principle of learning laboratories. It will be like the Planning Aid Service, but they’ll be based in one community and others will be able to copy them as a best example,” he said.
The Academy will be officially launched in “mid to late November this year,” said a spokesperson.

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