A Certificate IV in Surveying course will commence in the Australian Capital Territory in 2027.
This follows a nine-year absence in the local surveying and spatial VET education scene since the Canberra Institute of Technology closed its courses.
Since that time, students who didn’t wish to, or were unable to, progress to university have had no local pathway to VET surveying education. They have had to travel up to 3.5 hours to study elsewhere.
This has made it very difficult for local surveying firms to attract trained staff to support the ACT’s growing housing and infrastructure sectors.
Current and future needs
Although attempts were made over those nine years to engage local and regional VET providers, there was no success to be had.
But now that has all changed with the announcement that the Master Builders Association of the ACT (MBA ACT), in partnership with ACT Office of the Surveyor-General and Land Information (OSGLI), the Institution of Surveyors NSW (ISNSW) and Surveying Careers, are working to deliver a Certificate IV in Surveying to start in Canberra in February 2027.
The course is being designed to meet both the current and future skills needs of surveying businesses, their clients and the government.
It will help support the ACT government’s aim of delivering 30,000 new homes by 2030, new infrastructure projects and the overall development needs of the ACT and the surrounding NSW region.
Education initiatives
In the ACT, Associate Surveyors support the work of Registered Land Surveyors for conducting property boundary surveys, which are essential aspects of land development and housing construction.
The minimum formal qualification to become an ACT Associate Surveyor is a Certificate IV.
“It is wonderful to have the MBA ACT on board as the Registered Training Organisation to deliver the course, with ISNSW and Surveying Careers assisting,” said Greg Ledwidge, ACT Surveyor-General.
“There is much work to be done to deliver a course that is relevant for today and the next 5 to 10 years. To that end, I am looking forward to working with the MBA, ISNSW, Surveying Careers, Consulting Surveyors NSW and the Canberra regional surveying industry over 2026.”
The ACT, and Greg Ledwidge in particular, is very active in promoting geospatial education, as outlined last month in Spatial Source.
This includes encouraging high school students to consider careers in the geospatial sector through upcoming initiatives such as: a Geospatial Taster Day; a four-day Planning and Geospatial immersion event to be held from 6 to 9 July; and a four-day Surveying and Mapping immersion event to be held from Monday, 28 September to Thursday, 1 October.
ACT Associate Surveyors will also be getting together for a twilight event to be held on 21 April, during which discussions will be had on the future of Registered Land Surveyors. Guest speakers will include Aaron Fleury from ISNSW, and Ezra Miller (UNSW), the latter of whom will speak about using UAVs in GNSS denied environments.
