TPS Stakeholder Members in The Times Top 100 Graduate Employers

Atkins, Arup and Transport for London are in the Times’ 2014 list of the hundred best graduate employers.  At no 27, Arup have moved up from its 2013 rank of 39, and Atkins have moved from 61 to 49, but TfL is the big riser, moving from 99 to 63. All three are committed users of the Society’s Professional Development Scheme, PDS, and encourage their transport planners to progress to award of the TPP qualification,

Michele Dix, TfL’s Managing Director, Planning, told the Society:
We are committed to providing high quality development opportunities to our transport planning graduates. They are required to have placements that expose them to a number of key skills areas including strategy/policy; modelling/analysis and scheme development. One of their placements is in an area of their own choice, with a range of options including placements with the GLA, London Boroughs as well as  other parts of TfL. All of our grads are also required to spend two weeks in the operational side of our business to ensure that they gain some understanding of the challenges of working in the customer facing environment. After all, that is our bread and butter!.
 
For the last two years, TfL has made the following the TPS PDS mandatory for all transport planning graduates. The cohort that has just rolled off into their permanent roles have been assigned TPS trained mentors to act as technical supervisors and the new cohort are meeting with Martin Richards, Director of Skills at the TPS on 1 October to discuss the benefits of following the TPS PDS.
 
This commitment to recruiting high calibre grads and providing a wide range of excellent development opportunities is surely why since 2007 we have consistently appeared in the Times 100 list of the companies to work for as voted by graduates. In 2014 we were named the Graduate Employer of Choice in the Transport and Logistics sector, an accolade we have achieved on five occasions in the past six years.

The Times list is compiled by asking a large sample of 2014 graduates an open question ‘which employer do you think offers the best opportunities for graduates?’.  This year, respondents identified over 1,300 different employers.