Pathways to Planning is now welcoming councils to express interest the programme’s fourth cohort, while Last year, over 2,150 candidates applied to the programme, with the top 10-15% of those progressing to council interviews.
Pathways to Planning writes:
We will open formal applications to the programme in October, but welcome expressions of interest at this stage for our mailing list and to arrange meetings with councils.
We are working with Government to finalise our offer for September 2026, but expect it to include three recruitment pathways, each of which will be supporting councils and their graduates to complete an accredited postgraduate degree:
1) Planning: this is our well-established programme, which will be recruiting up to 175 graduate planners
2) Surveying: this is a new branch, which will be recruiting 20-30 graduates to work and train as surveyors up to chartership
3) Construction Project Management: this is another new branch, which will be recruiting 20-30 graduates to work and train as construction project managers up to chartership.
Councils will responsible for paying a graduate’s salary to a minimum level of £24,000 per year, starting in September 2026 and lasting a minimum period of two years. The planning pathway may include part-funded salary bursaries for councils who are unable to fund an entire graduate planner’s salary themselves
