ABSTRACT
This chapter covers how planning education programs contribute to professional competence development, including giving students a common body of knowledge for the field and preparing students for future professional competency assessment. It first reviews the status of the profession and regulatory requirements associated with practice, which vary geographically and have been influenced by the histories of planning in different geographic and political frameworks. It then discusses the history of accreditation movements and the development (and commonalities) of varying accreditation standards by professional planning bodies such as the Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI), the Accreditation Agency for Study Programs in Engineering, Informatics, Natural Sciences and Mathematics (ASIIN) in Germany, or the Planning Accreditation Board (PAB) in the United States. The chapter also discusses changing approaches to competency assessment, given that competencies are context-dependent and diverse, and moreover tend to change with career progression. As this chapter demonstrates, the global planning field is still locally shaped through nationally differentiated professional milieus and education practices.
