Learn how to prepare for our assessment process.
Pathways to Planning has been designed as a fast-track entry into a career in the built environment. It is open to graduates from any degree background, with no work experience required; we want to measure candidates’ best fit for a career in the sector. The assessments start quite broadly and become more specific to a planning or surveying context as the process progresses.
Applications for intake 2 are now open, and you can apply using the link below.
Application timeline
Cohort 4 applications open
As part of stage one, applicants complete a simple application form and situational judgement test by 29 June 2026 at 12pm. The team review the test results and communicate outcomes the following week.
- Intake 1: 8 October 2025 – 6 January 2026
- Intake 2: 2 March 2026 – 29 June 2026
Video interview
Applicants who meet the minimum threshold for the situational judgement test are invited to a video interview. Each applicant has more than a week to complete the video interview at a time of their choosing.
- Intake 1: January 2026
- Intake 2: July 2026
Virtual assessment centre
Applicants who pass our video interview are invited to a half-day, virtual assessment centre. Candidates are able to choose a morning or afternoon slot and will complete three exercises during the assessment centre. Candidates interested in surveying roles will sit different assessment centres to planning candidates.
- Intake 1: February 2026
- Intake 2: September 2026
Interviews
Applicants who pass the assessment centre receive a complete list of councils and employers taking part in the programme and job roles available. They then rank which they would prefer to interview with, so our team can take this into account when allocating interviews. We anticipate applicants will interview with one or two employers during this period. Employers choose who to offer a role to.
- Intake 1: April 2026
- Intake 2: Autumn 2026 – Winter 2027
Onboarding
Employers begin their onboarding processes with the successful graduates.
- Intake 1: April 2026
- Intake 2: January – March 2027
Commencement of work and study
Pathways graduate planners start work at their appointed council and begin their accredited postgraduate study.
- Intake 1: September 2026
- Intake 2: January – September 2027
Each stage of our application process is required to ensure that all candidates are fairly and equally assessed against the same criteria, our competencies. We will make adaptations to the delivery of assessments where needed to support candidates with additional requirements, but each candidate will be measured against the same criteria at each stage.
Eligibility
Pathways to Planning requires applicants to have a minimum 2.1 undergraduate degree completed by Summer 2026. If you have any additional qualifications, including a master’s degree, this is completely fine.
We only consider education to meet the minimum entry criteria: we will not consider your university of study, degree of study or level of achievement once we have established candidates’ eligibility for the programme. The one exception is that this programme is not suitable for graduates who are currently completing a master’s degree in planning, surveying, construction project management, or a related field, as a fully funded part-time master's in a built environment-related subject will be provided as part of the Pathways to Planning programme. Graduates who hold educational postgraduate qualifications in planning, construction, surveying, or a closely related field would be advised to seek support from the RTPI, RICS, RIBA, CIEEM and/or employment opportunities directly with local councils and public sector bodies. If you are unsure of your eligibility, please contact [email protected].
If you are currently studying on any university course which is funded by the Department for Education, please be aware that you must have completed this course by January 2027 in order to be eligible for Pathways to Planning. It is not possible to receive funding from two government sources for overlapping educational qualifications, and funding for the Pathways to Planning postgraduate study begins in January or September 2027.
Competencies
Our entire assessment process has been built around the following competencies, which were designed by an occupational psychologist along with volunteers from the young planners network, the BAME planners network, the Planning Advisory Service and Impact: the Local Government Graduate Programme.
You should be able to complete each assessment using a mobile phone with a camera and internet connection, a laptop with a camera and an internet connection, or a desktop computer with an internet connection and a camera.
If you have concerns about your access to the right technology, please get in touch with our team in advance of the closing date and we will find a solution for you.
Stages of the recruitment process
Situational judgement test
All candidates start by completing a situational judgement test. This test uses real life scenarios from graduate planners and general management trainees, all working in a local government context. You are given a short scenario and then three possible responses. You are asked to select your most and least likely responses to the scenario.
The test takes you through 24 different scenarios, measuring each of our competencies three times over the test. It is not timed, but we anticipate that it will take you 30-45 minutes on average to complete. We suggest you complete the test when you have at least an hour to spare to avoid putting yourself under unnecessary pressure. If you want to pause the assessment, you will be able to do so after answering a question, before proceeding to the next question. You can log back in at any time as long as you complete the entire situational judgement test by the application deadline.
Situational judgement sample questions
Video interview
If you pass the situational judgement test, you are invited to complete a video interview. You will have at least a week from the time you are given access to the video interview to complete this assessment at a time that works for you. We anticipate it will take you 15-20 minutes to complete this assessment but again, we would recommend leaving yourself an hour to use the practice function and ensure all you are at ease with the platform before you begin. You are asked three questions, one at a time, which relate to our competencies. You are encouraged to draw on any relevant experiences and examples, as we do not expect you to have experience working in a related area.
The assessment is timed, but you will get one chance to re-record each question if you are not satisfied with your first answer. If you require any reasonable adjustments, please get in touch with our team before you begin the video interview. We are not able to provide extra time or other measures retrospectively. It is not possible to pause a question once you have begun.
Professional assessors will mark the video interviews as audio files only, but our team will spot-check the video content to ensure that candidates are completing their interviews independently. We will also check the video of interviews where there have been technical difficulties or other issues.
Virtual assessment centre
If you pass the video interview, you are then invited to attend a virtual, half-day assessment centre where you will complete three tasks. These are a written task, a group discussion and a presentation. The assessment centre takes place on a virtual platform and assessments are marked by trained professionals.
If you have any additional requirements, which may require extra time to complete tests and exams, please get in touch with our team before you start the video interview so we can discuss reasonable adjustments.
Interviews
The last stage of our process is at least one interview with a local council or public sector body taking part in Pathways to Planning. We expect employers to have until autumn 2026 to sign up and will be shown on our ‘Where could I work’ tab. Any local council can choose to take part in the Pathways to Planning programme, but as councils are responsible for paying graduates’ salaries and supporting their learning, not every council in the country will be able to offer jobs through the programme.
All candidates who pass the assessment centre will be invited to an online hub where they can view detailed profiles for each participating local council or public body. This is where you will see how much they will pay, what qualification route they intend to use, what key projects your job might involve and a bit about their local area. You will be able to rank the regions and specific councils/employers that you would like to work within, and our team use your preferences to allocate interviews.
We encourage councils to be flexible on whether they hold in-person or virtual interviews, but it is ultimately their decision. We encourage candidates to share any reasonable adjustments with the councils they are interviewing at, as the Pathways to Planning team requires your express permission in order to share this information with councils. Details of each council’s interview process will be included in the online hub.
You will attend at least one interview, depending on your availability, but it is the employer’s decision who to hire. Most candidates will attend 1-2 interviews. We will not schedule you for more than three interviews without your consent. If you have extenuating circumstances, such as caring responsibilities or long-standing living arrangements like a multi-year rent agreement or mortgage, then we will take these into account when arranging interviews.
Once all interviews have been completed, candidates will follow their employer’s standard onboarding checks and procedures while also applying for the postgraduate course selected by their employer. Graduates who are part of intake 2 will start work in 2027 and will begin their postgraduate study in either January or September 2027.
What employers can take part in Pathways to Planning?
The majority of employers on Pathways to Planning will be local councils. Across our first three cohorts, we worked with 125 different councils to provide over 200 jobs to graduates. For cohort 4 intake 1, public bodies, such as central government agencies, were also able to hire graduates into surveying roles.
Councils outside of England are not covered by the government grant that funds the Pathways to Planning programme. As such, Northern Ireland and Scotland have to pay a fee to take part in the programme and are not eligible to receive the bursary funds. It is far less likely that councils within these regions will take part in the programme on this basis.
I am already working for a local council. Can I take part in this programme as part of my current role?
No, Pathways to Planning involves a separate recruitment process to anything you would have been through to secure your current role. All candidates who apply to the programme will complete the same assessments and will have equal access to interview with participating councils. If you are already working for a council, you can apply to the Pathways to Planning programme, but we cannot guarantee that you will pass the assessments and/or that you would gain an interview with your current employer, if they are taking part in the Pathways to Planning programme.