Accreditation, or a degree from an accredited program, serves as a marker of approval from the planning profession. Practitioners and employers view accredited programs highly for providing the core of professional education with commonly recognized standards for skills, knowledge, and values.
A planner’s experience with accreditation doesn’t end with graduation. Accreditation also provides planners a forum that educators and practitioners use to exchange ideas on future needs of the planning profession and ways to best address these needs in professional education and training.
Accreditation provides the public with programmatic or institutional accountability via information about educational effectiveness.
Why PAB Accreditation Matters to Employers
Accreditation is not just a sticker or a certificate. It reassures that a program’s graduates are well prepared for practice with the necessary skills and knowledge to effectively serve in the workplace and with the public, specifically in the ways laid out below.
Assurance of Quality
- Graduates meet rigorous, profession-informed standards.
- Because of these standards, their foundational knowledge, skills, and readiness are consistent.
Workforce Readiness
- Graduates are prepared for real-world planning challenges.
- They gain strong technical, analytical, and soft skills.
- This reduces onboarding time and training needs.
Stronger Professional Pathways
- Starting from an accredited program strengthens and expedites a graduate’s path to American Institute of Certified Planners (AICP) certification.
- It also reinforces professionalism and ethical practice.
Consistency Across Programs
- The standards and expectations are shared across PAB-accredited institutions.
- It also guarantees alignment with evolving industry standards.