Meeting the professional development and training needs of regional development practitioners in Queensland

Sustainable regional development is the key to Australia's future and a new profession of regional development practitioners has emerged. The regional development practitioners come from a diverse group of professions and there is no single coherent framework that links together or provides support to this group of professionals. This paper provides an overview of the range of support networks and services available to professional development practitioners in Queensland and attempts to determine the effectiveness of these services in providing adequate professional development networks and support services. Recommendations are made about how a better support system may be developed in Queensland for these professionals. In addition the professionol activities and events relevant to regional development practitioners are discussed as well as the current courses and training opportunities available for regional developers in Australia. The generation of knowledge and the dissemination of information are critical support services for any profession. Accordingly the type and number of journals, report series and other publications relevant to regional development practitioners is also considered. Finally the effectiveness and adequacy of the services available to regional developers in Queensland is evaluated. Conclusions are then drawn as to the improvements needed to support these services.