Universities asked to participate.

As in almost all industries, the shortage of skilled workers is worsening in landscape and open space planning. The construction industry is doing well and the baby boomers are gradually retiring, which is exacerbating the shortage. Design firms and green administrators are looking for entry-level professionals as well as experienced graduate engineers.

"The challenges of our time, including climate change and climate adaptation, need the expertise of landscape architects," says bdla President Till Rehwaldt, describing the situation. "Well-trained professionals have the best career prospects and are desperately sought. The bdla will increasingly strive for the professional new generation." By the end of the year, the presidium and regional groups of the bdla will concretize the association's strategy for recruiting young professionals. Above all, it will be crucial to increase the number of those who start and successfully complete a course of study in landscape architecture.

In March 2019, the bdla's training working group already discussed the development of the number of graduates as well as the number of first-year students at German universities. In this context, it is striking: There is no reliable information on how many young people take up and successfully complete studies in landscape architecture.

The Training Working Group is therefore initiating a survey at all German universities offering landscape architecture courses. The aim is to compile nationwide statistics with figures on both first-year students and graduates. The year 2018 will be surveyed, if possible also going back to 2013, in order to be able to depict the development of the last few years. In the evaluation of the data, a distinction is made between Bachelor's and Master's degree programmes on the one hand and between universities of applied sciences and universities on the other.

The bdla calls on all German universities with courses of study in landscape architecture to participate. A corresponding questionnaire will be made available at www.bdla.de. The strictly confidential handling of the respective numbers is assured.

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