Developing Professional Qualifications for Travel Planners Professor Stephen

Developing Professional Qualifications for Travel Planners Professor Stephen Potter The Open University Dr. Marcus Enoch Loughborough University

Travel Planning Skills • Travel planning represents a different approach than traditional transport planning. It is… – about sustaining initiatives, not one-off projects/actions – about building partnerships, consulting, educating and empowering users • This requires appropriate skills and management approaches

Travel Planning and Professional Qualifications • Travel Planning requires different sorts of skills and people to traditional transport planning (or even projectoriented Mobility Management) • Travel Planners come from a variety of backgrounds and do not fit easily into existing transport planning career structures – There can be serious problems of professional status – Existing Transport qualifications do not match to the different approach and skills of Travel Planning • Travel Planning is a new transport planning profession that has a qualifications gap

Travel Planning Qualifications • With financial support from Transport for London, the Open University and Loughborough University have developed a range of Travel Planning qualifications • The suite of qualifications recognise the need for a range of training for workplace and school Travel Planners, consisting of: – An OU CPD short course on Travel Plan basics for newly appointed TP co-ordinators – Other OU CPD courses to develop professional skills – An OU NVQ level-4 Travel Planning qualification – Loughborough MSc in Sustainable Transport and Travel Planning

Open University CPD Courses • Part-time, web-delivered short courses designed to fit with the situation of workplace and school Travel Planners (available worldwide) • Each 25 -30 hours long, with an open start and finish (to fit with workload) Mix mode materials • Learning Advisor support (via email – 24 hr response guaranteed) and web Conference to share experience with other learners

Assessment and Validation • Assessment is through a work-based activity applying content of courses to own situation – If learner fails they receive feedback and can resubmit • QA procedures require the OU to have an external and internal assessor for each of the courses • The courses are also subject to scrutiny by the Tf. L Educational Advisory Group

Open University CPD Travel Planning Courses: – Introduction to travel planning (GT 013) – Travel plan development (GT 014) – Social marketing: how to influence behaviour (GB 017) – How to design and analyse surveys (GT 032) Course descriptions and course ‘tasters’ can be found at: http: //www. open. ac. uk/cpd/? q=node/128

NVQ Certificate in Travel Planning • This will be a level-4 NVQ award for the completion of the four CPD short courses and an assessed integrating work-based activity • Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA) accreditation for the award will be in place by Autumn 2008 • Travel Planners can already take generic National Transportation Qualification units – For details see: http: //www. transportationvg. org. uk/transportation_qualifications. htm

Example: Introduction to Travel Planning • http: //learn. open. ac. uk/course/view. php? id=2267

MSc in Sustainable Transport and Travel Planning • Tf. L-sponsored MSc in Sustainable Transport and Travel Planning launched in October 2006 • Full time and part time options now available • Programmes accredited by Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport • For details see Loughborough University website at: http: //www. lboro. ac. uk/prospectus/pg/cv/sttp/index. htm

MSc Programme • 180 credits • Programmes are designed to allow distance attendance • Currently lectures take place fortnightly Thursday afternoons and all day Friday. • Full-time students complete in 12 months and part-time students over 2 -5 years • Assessment is mix of coursework and exams • Validated and subject to scrutiny of external examiner and Tf. L’s Travel Plan Education Advisory Group

Programme structure Semester 1 (year 1) • Applied Research Methods (10 credits) • Transport Policy (20) Semester 1 (year 2) • Transport and the Environment (10) • Transport Business Strategy and Management (20) Semester 2 • Travel Behaviour and Travel Planning (20) • Applied Research Methods 2 (10) Semester 1 (year 2) • Sustainable Cities and Transport (10) • Marketing Transport Services (20) 60 credit Project

Developing programmes • As well as the OU and Loughborough suite of courses, other initiatives are taking place: • Other Travel Planning courses are included in the Pro. Sta. TT trail • National Transportation Qualifications can also be suitable for Travel Planners • The TPS training and development site collates many UK courses and qualifications See: http: //www. transportationopportunities. org. uk/training/

Thank You • Professor Stephen Potter: Tel 01908 652634: Email s. potter@open. ac. uk • Dr Marcus Enoch: Tel: 01509 223408; Email: m. p. enoch@lboro. ac. uk