Turning the transport planning skills campaign into action

For several months, the Transport Planning Society has been arguing that the shortage of transport planners is not simply a challenge for our profession. It risks holding back the infrastructure and development on which the Government’s growth ambitions depend, while tackling it could create valuable new routes into skilled employment for young people.

 

Through our engagement with government and presentations at major industry events, we have sought to put skills firmly within the wider debate about growth and delivery. Ambitious plans for infrastructure and housing will count for little unless there are enough skilled people to plan transport networks, understand how people and places connect, and ensure investment produces lasting benefits for communities.

 

The need is becoming increasingly urgent. Transport planning already faces a skills gap, which will widen as the profession approaches a retirement cliff edge and experienced practitioners leave the workforce. Without a new generation ready to succeed them, we risk losing valuable knowledge and finding ourselves without the capacity needed at precisely the point when demand is growing.

 

The scale of the challenge also presents a significant opportunity, because transport planning can offer precisely the kind of purposeful and rewarding career that many young people are seeking. Combining technical knowledge with problem-solving, communication and an understanding of how places work, it allows practitioners to see the tangible effect of their work, whether through improving access to jobs and services, supporting new homes or creating healthier and better-connected communities.

 

Despite this, too few young people know that transport planning exists as a profession, understand the range of opportunities it offers or can see an accessible route into it. This is particularly important in light of the Milburn Review, which found that 84% of young people surveyed who were not in education, employment or training wanted to find work, education or training. Its findings reinforce the case we have been making – the barrier is not necessarily a lack of aspiration, but a shortage of visible, accessible routes into worthwhile careers with genuine prospects for progression.

 

Bringing these issues together creates an opportunity to meet two pressing needs at once. Transport planning urgently needs new talent, while many young people are looking for work which offers purpose, recognised skills and long-term progression. By making the profession more visible and creating clearer routes into it, we can begin to address both.

 

This argument is gaining traction, with the case presented by TPS receiving a positive response from government and across the industry. There is growing recognition that workforce planning must sit alongside the infrastructure pipeline rather than follow it as an afterthought, and our focus is now on translating that recognition into practical action. An important milestone came this month with the success of our first Transport Planning Technician, or TPTech, and we expect more to follow.

 

Designed specifically for transport planning, TPTech offers a fresh, bespoke means of recognising the knowledge, skills and experience of technicians, apprentices and those at the beginning of their careers. It gives people professional recognition at an early stage while providing the first step on a clear pathway through the TPS Professional Development Scheme towards Incorporated Transport Planner and Transport Planning Professional status. Those entering the profession can therefore see both how their developing competence will be recognised and where that development could ultimately lead.

 

The qualification also brings distinct benefits for the organisations responsible for attracting and developing new talent. Employers gain a structured way to invest in staff, recognise their progress and build the capabilities they will need in future, while universities, colleges and apprenticeship providers can create a stronger connection between learning and professional recognition. For individuals, it provides a visible and accessible route into a profession which they might not previously have considered.

 

We are now exploring how to expand the capacity to deliver TPTech and make it available to many more people. With the new academic year approaching, we want to accelerate our conversations with employers, universities, apprenticeship providers, public authorities and other partners about embedding the qualification within early-career and training programmes. Our ambition extends beyond increasing the number of people holding TPTech – it is about strengthening the links between education and employment, raising awareness of transport planning and establishing a coherent route into and through the profession.

 

Qualifications alone will not resolve the skills shortage, and the sector must also promote transport planning more effectively, widen entry routes and give people meaningful opportunities to gain experience and develop throughout their careers. However, TPTech provides a practical foundation around which that wider effort can be built, and the success of our first candidate demonstrates how the campaign TPS has developed over recent months can translate into action.

 

We now want to work with partners to build on that momentum, open transport planning to more people and develop the workforce needed to turn the country’s infrastructure, housing and growth ambitions into reality.