Generic genius required

Regeneration & Renewal, 27 October 2006

Phil Barton, director of regional centre of excellence Renew Northwest

Which skills are most important in regeneration?

There are essentially two sets of skills required in regeneration. There are the technical skills that come with your own particular responsibilities - if you're an architect, being a good architect; if you're a youth worker, being a good youth worker. But, in addition, we're particularly interested in the generic skills, such as adaptability and communication skills, that are always important across different jobs in different fields.

A broad knowledge of the sector is vital. If you're going to create sustainable communities you need to understand about all the different roles involved in regeneration, from planning and architecture through to issues surrounding community engagement. You need to be able to set a vision of what can be achieved, get close to the communities, and then deliver effectively.

Are we moving fast enough towards the Government's ambitions on regeneration skills? What else needs to be done?

A lot is being done and the pace is increasing. Three years ago little was being done. Arguably, during the 1980s and 1990s, the public sector was unfashionable and fewer ambitious people wanted to go into it. But that's changing. Also, I think some of the key organisations in regeneration - such as councils - are starting to take skills really seriously and to make sure that there are career development opportunities for their employees.

In terms of what is needed, far too many people are defensive about their own professional skills and uneasy when they are asked to work outside their comfort zones. For regeneration to move forward, people need to learn to work together across sectors.

A lot needs to be done with young people to make professions in regeneration more attractive. There are also issues around diversity. We need to do more to make careers in regeneration more accessible. Many of the people working in regeneration are white male graduates and a lot more could be done to open up the field to people from different backgrounds.

What are the forthcoming opportunities in regeneration?

There will be considerable oportunities for careers in regeneration and related professions across the sector in future. There are significant current shortfalls in key areas and the challenges of neighbourhood management, regeneration and renewal are not going to go away, even if government policies come and go. At the moment, there is a shortage of environmental health professionals and there are shortages in planning and in engineering. There is also a great shortage of good community workers.


Kevin Sugrue, chief executive of Renaisi, a non-profit regeneration consultancy based in east London

Which skills are most important in regeneration?

Firstly, good communication skills. Oral communication skills are more important at the outset; people who speak well are simply more effective. In regeneration, carrying communities and partners with you is vital, so you need persuasiveness. Secondly, the individual needs to be analytical. There's a lot of information, and someone needs to know what it all means and be able to translate the data. Thirdly, you need to be a clear thinker - to be able to think about a deprived area and identify what needs to be changed. You also need great enthusiasm and self-motivatation. We need people who are driven; not in a way that makes them blind to everything that is going on around them, but so that they are determined to make things happen.

Besides this, project management is the most important skill. You need the aptitude to be a strategic thinker and to understand how initiatives and issues link to each other. Regeneration needs people who understand this.

Are we moving fast enough towards the Government's ambitions on regeneration skills? What else needs to be done?

There is a growing understanding that you don't just build houses: you build sustainable communities, and that means thinking about every aspect of the community during planning and construction. When you build a school it is not just a school; it is the centre of community life and has implications for everybody.

Regeneration is about life - it affects everything. It would be helpful to get it into the school curriculum. It's such a broad area and in preparing young people for the world of work, we should tell them that regeneration is going to be a key area.

What are the forthcoming opportunities in regeneration?

What we lack at the moment are good project managers. We need people who can deliver on the ground. We need to get away from people who make policies while sitting on the 26th floor of an office block.


David Black, projects director, regeneration consultancy Leaside Regeneration

Which skills are most important in regeneration?

In regeneration you need to be something of a jack of all trades, so I would say the single most important quality in regeneration is probably flexibility. You need to understand a bit about marketing and sales, and know how to get on with the local community. You need to be able to talk in the same language as lawyers, and you have to be flexible about putting a project together. In regeneration, you will know a bit about surveying,a bit about town planning and a bit about architecture - but what it is really about is project management.

Communication skills are extremely important. The best person in regeneration is the one who can pull all the different players together and keep them together and enthusiastic. To be able to do this is as much a mindset as anything else.

Are we moving fast enough towards the Government's ambitions on regeneration skills? What else needs to be done?

I think the situation is a bit like what happened in the 1980s with urban design. When I studied urban design, there were only two courses in the world- one at Oxford Polytechnic and one in Boston in the USA. Now regeneration is much more advanced as a discipline, but it is still early days. There will be dozens and dozens of courses opening up in the future.

Actually, I think regeneration is a difficult thing to teach. You can teach people a certain amount in the classroom, but you would probably get more out of a year's placement than going on a course. You can put together a useful academic course, but it needs to have lots of practical elements.

I would like to see the Royal Town Planning Institute placing students on regeneration projects - there is sometimes a wide gap between the theory and the practice.

What are the forthcoming opportunities
in regeneration?

Regeneration generally is going to grow and grow. It's government policy to direct people into re-using land, and with all the interest in sustainability there will be lots of opportunities for good project managers.


Pamela Lewis, head of people development at the Government's regeneration agency English Partnerships

What skills are most important in regeneration?

The ability to understand the big themes, to know what makes a community sustainable and to understand the needs of multiple stakeholders is essential.

You need professional and business skills, but you don't necessarily need an in-depth skill in one particular area. We prefer people who show that they have an appreciation and an understanding of all the important professions such as planning, engineering, surveying - they have a holistic view of the whole business.

And in regeneration, it's not just what you do; it's how you do it. So we encourage our staff to develop soft skills, working with them where necessary to make sure they have good communication and project management skills.

Our graduate training scheme takes 12 people over two years and turns them into regeneration specialists. They spend six months in one region before going on shorter placements to projects around the country to learn about the skills required on each.

Our first intake of graduates were asked to go out and interview high performers and try to identify what it was that made them so successful. In regeneration, you have to be really self-conscious about what you want to achieve.

Are we moving fast enough towards the Government's ambitions on regeneration skills? What else needs to be done?

Both (government regeneration skills report) the Egan Review and our internal research showed that the shortage of skills in the regeneration sector was not just in volume but in the range of skills people were bringing to the sector.

The sector is ripe [for progress] in terms of skills development. There is often no clear career path for people in regeneration.

We have to do more about working with the courses that train people in the traditional professions, such as architecture and engineering. We have to get across the idea that regeneration is a field in itself. More work needs to be carried out in schools, to teach children that regeneration is a profession like any other.

What are the forthcoming opportunities in regeneration?

There is a mammoth amount of employment in regeneration - the opportunities are absolutely fantastic. There are lots of jobs for new regeneration professionals. The Olympic Games in London will provide an even greater impetus.