Hi everyone. I’m really keen to get into this line of work, following a Master’s dissertation exploring notions of landscape. Can anyone give me any tips on how best to get into it? Are there training courses available? Mandatory degree course (I hope not!)? I have environmental consultancy experience, but not really anything for visual. As always, your advice is keenly anticipated! Thanks, Kieron

Why not give Mott MacDonald (or similar) a call and ask to speak to someone who works in Visual Impact Assessments?

It’s pretty niche, so i’m sure, if you catch someone on a good day, they won’t mind a quick chat with someone interested in their field.

If you haven’t already, have a look at the Landscape Institute’s Guidelines on LVIA – which are accepted best practice and form the basis of pretty much all work for EIA, planning applications, Inquiry work etc.

If you do not have a landscape degree or some form of eligibility for membership of the LI then you may struggle to get into it as most assessment work is assumed to potentially end up at Inquiry where qualifications become more important.

As noted above, have a chat with a landscape bod, Motts, Atkins, URS, Arup, etc etc etc all do this type of work, or many landscape practices. Should be one local to you.

The best way in is through a landscape consultancy, such as LUC, or an environmental consultancy with a landscape team. You’ll be starting at the bottom and I don’t think you’ll make it to the top unless you are or become a chartered wotsit architect thingy. It is a good area to work in though and plenty of work as long as people are building stuff. I had an interview with one last year and would have taken the job if I hadn’t just verbally accepted another. I still might go back to it…

The regulator side or local authority side is probably a bit less interesting and I would imagine harder to get a job in at the moment.