Professional Development

Professional Development for Transport Planners

Progressing a professional career requires a structured personal plan, designed to obtain and maintain the breadth and depth of competence in both the technical and generic skills expected of a true professional.

Likewise, there is a need for employers to provide their staff with opportunities to develop their initial career, and then to continually develop their skills over their career, so they have highly competent, professional staff, who have a breadth of vision together with a depth of expertise to meet the demands placed on them.

Structured development schemes provide both the individual and their employer with a well defined set of objectives that need to be satisfied.

TPS is committed to fostering the professional development of transport planners, to:

enable them to obtain the relevant skills;
to continually extend their skills over their career, to meet changing needs; and
enhance the standing of the profession.

As a key part of this commitment, the Society provides a structured Professional Development Scheme, the TPS PDS. Based on the National Occupational Standards (NOS) for Transport Planners, the PDS was prepared by the Society working with key employers, and has become the industry standard, being provided by most of the leading consultants, as well as a growing number of local authorities.

The TPS Professional Development Scheme

For the transport planner, the TPS PDS provides detailed programme to be followed over the initial years of their career. An important benefit of participating in the PDS is the need to gain the range (and depth) of experience they require, both as a professional and to obtain the TPP qualification, by regularly moving between projects in a planned manner

For the employer, an individual’s progress through the scheme provides a useful performance metric, indicating the commitment of the trainee to personal professional development, and progress to being a fully qualified professional.

Designed to meets the needs of transport planners, whether recent graduates, career changers or those with an established career, the TPS PDS requires those following it to obtain:

the knowledge that underlies both transport planning and key generic skills, including communications and management
experience of work in a wide range of transport planning activities with an ability to supervise others working in some activities
an essential set of management and communication competences.

The TPS PDS consists of a set of 18 Units, some of which are mandatory, while others are used to provide a set of choices. Eight of the 18 Units are concerned with management and generic skills (such as communications and inter-personal relations), two are concerned with policies, laws and regulations, and eight with transport planning techniques, such as data collection, assessment, public consultation, plan development and travel planning. Each Unit consists of a set of Objectives. Progress through the PDS is measured by the completion of the individual Objectives of the set of Units selected by the trainee.

The PDS is based on four levels of competence – Awareness, Knowledge, Experience and Proficiency - with Proficiency requiring an ability to work unsupervised or to supervise others. Completion requires demonstration of competence Objective by Objective, with Proficiency required for some Units and Experience for others.

The time required for completion of the TPS PDS varies between individuals, depending on their knowledge when they commence, their prior experience and the frequency with which they are able to move between tasks, to gain the necessary breadth and depth of experience. Most of those starting as new entrants to transport planning will need about five years to complete the PDS, although it might be possible to complete it within more quickly for those with exceptional opportunities to gain the necessary breadth and depth of experience.

Preparation for Professional Qualifications

Anyone who has completed the TPS PDS, and also has the necessary academic qualifications, should have most of the competences required for the Transport Planning Professional qualification, provided by the Society together with the Chartered Institution of Highways and Transportation

Those with an accredited engineering degree who wish to become a Chartered Engineer (CEng) should have most of the required competences on completing the PDS, although they are likely to need additional skills in engineering principles and health and safety.

Completion also satisfies the experience requirements for Chartered Membership of the Chartered membership of CILT.

Availability of the TPS Professional Development Scheme

The TPS PDS is available under licence to any Stakeholder member of the Society. It is also available to any Local Authority that is a Corporate member as well as to other Corporate members with a total staff of no more than 20. There is also a Consortium Licence arrangement for groups of Local Authorities who co-operate in providing and managing the PDS.

There is no charge for individuals participating in the PDS.

TPS provides those employers with a TPS PDS licence with a set of documents and a reasonable amount of advice in implementing and managing the PDS. It also runs twice yearly workshops for PDS mangers and provides training sessions for PDS Mentors.

Organisations that have adopted the TPS Professional Development Scheme

Why should I follow the TPS PDS?

As clicking here demonstrates, many leading transport planners see the TPS PDS as being of great benefit to those in the early stages of their career, as they explain in response to a series of questions.

Further Information

For a document providing a general overview of the TPS PDS please click here.

A leaflet providing an overview of both the TPS PDS and the TPP qualification for Local Authorities can be downloaded by clicking here.

A leaflet prepared in conjunction with Leicestershire County Council and the Midlands Highway Alliance is here.

A detailed overview of the TPS PDS can be downloaded by clicking here.

For answers to some frequently asked questions about the TPS Professional Development Scheme and the TPP qualification please click here.

For information on the Consortium Licence arrangement for Local Authorities please click here.

Copies of articles on the PDS can be found in the Spring 2008 edition of All Change and Planning Magazine of 9th May 2008.

If you would like to contact TPS for further information on the TPS PDS, please e-mail info@tps.org.