It was my great honour to be part of transport planning history yesterday. The first ever cohort of transport planning degree apprentices graduated from Aston University after their five-year journey on a course that Lucy Rackliff had the vision to establish back in 2019.

Huge congratulations to the graduates: Andrew Carter MCIHT EngTech, Thomas Emery, Amy Gaitskell, Oliver Hopkins-Phillips, Lauren Larkin, Francesca Leonard, Olivia Meacham, Elliott Place, Olivia Thomas, and Jolyon Winkler.

It is a great credit to Lucy Rackliff along with course contributors Sarah Spink and Guilhermina Torrao that our profession is able to benefit from this apprentice degree. The magic of working alongside studying. These graduates are already experienced professionals.

Sorry the officially taken photos are not to hand for this post but it was my pleasure as Chartered Institution of Highways & Transportation (CIHT) President to present two CIHT Foundation student prizes for excellent achievements – to Francesca Leonard and Olivia Thomas. Well done to both of you. Also a delight to spend time with Matthew Moss MEng (Hons) CEng FCIHT, the CIHT West Midlands Chair, and to have the chance to catch up with Toby Rackliff.

With a graduation robe and cap, I was allowed to sport my Iron Maiden t-shirt and jeans for the prizegiving and to give a short speech about the importance of being authentically sustainable 💚, inclusive 💙 and professional 🤘. This included the following advice:

“So, my encouragement to you all as you make your way in your careers is to try and bring as much of your authentic selves as you can to your professional roles and your lives in general. We expect professional transport planners to be constructively challenging. So question how things are done if they don’t seem right to you, play a part in changing how things are done.

As a colleague of mine (Hannah Smart) rather beautifully said, “A comfort zone is a safe place to be, but nothing ever grows there”. I hope you will all grow and realise your full potential as you contribute to the important work of shaping the future of transport and society.”

It was lovely to end the evening in the company of Sarah and Mina as Sarah gave us a guided tour of the heart of Birmingham. I was honestly inspired by the placemaking that is evolving. And what could have been more perfect than to say hello to Ozzy Osbourne and Tony Iommi. Black Sabbath was formed the year that I was born.

#degreeapprentices #transportplanning #Birmingham