Confiabilidad de los Instrumentos

 Facilitate development of vision for municipality

 Creativity is required to develop completely new methods/understanding (Ovens & Associates,

2007:14-15).

The South African Council of Planners is currently in the process of drafting general competencies and standards for South African planners. There are three forms of competencies: generic competencies, core competencies and elective or specialist competencies. Generic competencies are attributes that all planners should have and they are as follows: “Critical thinking, interpersonal competencies, communications, leadership, professionalism and ethical behaviour” (Ovens & Associates, 2007: 20)

The role of a planner has drastically changed from prior 1994 to post 1994. There are more issues that concern planners now than there were in the past; issues such as the eradication of poverty and inequality, environmental management, economic development and community participation. However, planners are ill-equipped to deal with such issues since they are still educated using the traditional planning processes of development control. Planners today are required to manage geographically larger areas. New planning processes such as community participation, integrated development planning are some of the challenges that planners have not been prepared for during their academic year. The integrated development process requires planners to have communication skills which will be used to promote community participation and engagement. In addition, the integrated development process requires planners to have management skills and financial management skills. Planners today are required to strike a balance between short term planning processes such as development control and long term planning processes that ensures sustainability of a city (Ovens & Associates, 2007).

2.11 Conclusion

There is a tug of war between planning schools and planning practitioners. The main source of the rift between planning schools and planning practitioners is the legitimacy of planning education; whether it is relevant for practice. Planning schools aim to equip students with holistic theoretical knowledge and skills. While planning practitioners call for an emphasis on practical skills relevant to the day to day planning processes.

Planning educators are labelled as researchers who analyse from a distance and turn complex situations into abstract and generalised concepts. Practitioners are directly involved in projects and are required to be immediate reactors to situations. Instead of generalising, practitioners appreciate the uniqueness of each situation. Ironically, planning educators and

planning practitioners have different professions; they act and think in different ways, however they share one common entity: the students. Students enter the world of practice unprepared for the complex realities of industry and consequently have to learn to deal with industry. In that case, what is the role of planning education if students have to learn from practice? Some authors have stated that the role of planning education is not to fully equip students with all the tools for industry. It is practically unattainable to teach students theory, practical skills and communication methods relevant for planning (due to the large scope of work, the diverse educational backgrounds of students and the difficulty of synthesising both theory and reflective skills). The authors conclude that industry has the equal role of training students what they have not learnt.

Planning practitioners have a clear vision of an ideal core curriculum. They argue for more emphasis on the teaching of practical skills in order to respond to the skills demand of industry. Although they acknowledge the value of theoretical knowledge, they argue that most of the theory is irrelevant in the planning practice. Industry surveys have shown that planners take up most of their time conducting “non-traditional” planning work which demands a communicative approach. In essence, employers are seeking planners that show a range of communication abilities. They (practitioners) also call for a more realistic planning curriculum. The only way students are going to be prepared for practice is if they practice what is in the world of practice.

This list in the table below was derived from the literature of enterprise education, as well as the literature of planning education. The researcher identified the most common and prominent skills from both sets of literatures. Furthermore, the listed planning skills have been categorised using Van Schoor’s (2000) method of categorising “soft skills”. There is the cognitive domain, the behavioural domain, and the affective domain.

Table 2.2 Skills divided into cognitive, behavioural and affective skills

Cognitive skills Behaviourial skills Affective skills

Analytical skills Self belief Independence

Computer skills To have initiative Acting resourcefully Decision making The ability to work in a team Being innovative

Critical thinking Leadership skills Confidence

Awareness of the business environment

Planning & organising Self awareness

The overall aim of the parts; chapter, i.e. part 1 and part 2 was to link the two disciplines of enterprise education and the (town) planning education. The linkage can be drawn from the discussion of the enterprise skills and the planning skills. There are distinct similarities between enterprise skills identified by authors of enterprise education and planning skills identified by authors of planning education. The table represents the skills that authors of planning education regard as essential “soft skills” for planners, while they also represent essential enterprise skills in enterprise education. In other words, planners do recognise the importance of enterprise skills, even though they may not explicitly refer to them as enterprise skills.

and calculations

The ability to communicate with others

Time management The ability to use imagination

Problem-solving skills Understanding client needs The ability to learn by

themselves

Customer awareness & feedback

Report writing The ability to adapt to change Negotiation Recognising the importance of

stakeholders

Public speaking Networking

Deabting Self reflection

Presentation skills Creativity