Employers can benefit from having staff with the TPP Qualification. But, in order that candidates are successful in their application they will often need the support of their employer.
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Achieving the TPP qualification requires a significant level of commitment by candidates and employer support is extremely valuable to them.
The Transport Planning Society provides the TPS Professional Development Scheme (PDS) for Transport Planners, a structured scheme designed to help transport planners, whether recent graduates, career changers or those with an established career, obtain the competences required for award of the TPP. The TPS PDS is comprehensive, covering both knowledge and experience across the full breadth of transport planning as well as management and communications skills. Those who have satisfactorily completed the TPS PDS will have met the experience requirements for Chartered membership of CILT. And those with an accredited degree wishing to be a Chartered Engineer (CEng) should have most of the required competences, although they are likely to need additional skills in engineering principles and health and safety. The time required to complete the PDS will vary between individuals, depending on their knowledge base at entry and the frequency with which they are able to move between tasks to gain the necessary breadth and depth of experience. Most will need about five years to complete it, although some with exceptional opportunities to gain the experience required might be able to complete it more quickly. To ensure consistency both within and between organisations using the PDS, the Society has an external Review Process, and awards a Certificate of PDS Completion to those who have demonstrated to a TPS PDS Reviewer that they have satisfied the PDS requirements. The PDS is available under licence to Stakeholder members of the Society; it has been adopted by many leading consultancies as well as by Transport for London and Hampshire and Leicestershire County Councils. Further information is available on the TPS website at www.tps.org.uk/main/professionaldevelopment/ or by contacting pds@tps.org.uk.
Working very closely with a wide range of employers, the Transport Planning Society (TPS) and GoSkills, the Sector Skills Council responsible for transport planning, have developed the National Occupational Standards (NOS) for Transport Planning.
The National Occupational Standards (NOS) cover the key activities undertaken by a professional, providing a statement of competence which brings together the skills, knowledge and understanding necessary to do their work, and provide a framework for training and development. The Transport Planning NOS were formally approved by the regulatory authorities, the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA) for England and its counterparts in the other administrations, in April 2007. Copies are available here.
Based on the NOS, the Transport Planning Society has prepared the TPS Professional Standards for Transport Planners. The TPS Standards maintain the full content of the NOS, to which additional guidance has been added. They have also been restructured to make them directly suitable for use in the TPS Professional Development Scheme as well as for the TPP qualification.
The TPS Standards cover six areas:
which are divided into eighteen Units and 93 Objectives. A specific level of competence is associated with each Objective: Awareness, Knowledge, Experience and Proficiency, with Proficiency being defined as an ability to carry out work without supervision and to supervise others.
The TPS Professional Standards are available to those organisations with a TPS Professional Development Scheme licence.
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