To address a shortage of transport planners in the United Kingdom, the Transport Planning Society (TPS) launched a transport planning skills initiative. On the basis of quantitative and qualitative research, the initiative identified some key characteristics of the market for transport planners and the skills that planners require. It also identified the lack of a clear professional identity as a barrier to the choice of transport planning as a career. One of the participants in the initiative was a group of UK universities providing transport master's courses, the Universities Transport Partnership, which has been working with TPS in the development of the profession, in part through its employers' forum. Having identified the need for a stronger professional identity for transport planning, TPS has been working in liaison with employers, professional institutes, and the skills sector on the development of a set of transport planning skill requirements (National Occupational Standards) and qualifications.