Applied through
Experienced Practitioner APC (EP-APC)
Commended
PCS & PDP
Qualifications:
- BSc in Geography at Loughborough University
My career:
I graduated from Loughborough University in 2015 with a BSc in Geography, and started my planning career as a Planning Enforcement Officer at the London Borough of Newham Council. This role served as a great starting point to my career to understand the nuances of the planning system, the development control process and engaging with the public to resolve breaches of planning control.
I then moved to onto Chelmsford City Council as a Planning Officer, assessing a wide variety of minor and householder applications and building my skills as a decision-maker.
In 2019, I moved to New Zealand and took on the role of Compliance Officer at Christchurch City Council, ensuring major planning consents were adhered to during the post-earthquake construction boom. While it was a challenge to quickly learn new legislation and understand a new planning system, this experience built on my skills and understanding of the principles of planning and project management.
Upon returning to the UK, I briefly worked as a Planning Officer at Dorset Council before joining ECE Planning as a Planner, my first role in the private sector, working on a wide variety of residential and commercial schemes across the South East and London.
I was then promoted to Senior Planner in 2023, where I am working with a diverse range of clients across both private and public sectors, leading on major planning applications, working on strategic site promotion, and carry out public engagement events with local communities to shape development proposals.
APC tips
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Pick a Narrative/Theme across your submission - For the Experienced Practitioner APC Route, you are required to demonstrate a specialist skill amongst the wider skills and competencies of being a planner. My specialist skill was community engagement and so I sought to show this across all of my case studies, within my PES and into my PDP, using experience from my PCS to shape my Goals and Objectives in the PDP.
Each case study included narrative for a different level or degree of community engagement from a conversation with an objector on a householder application early in my career, to a public consultation event for a major strategic development at a more experienced level.
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Make a Plan – Thoroughly read and review the Guidance document and pick Case Studies that can cover as many competencies as possible. You do not have to pick the most exciting or complex project you have worked on, just examples that can clearly demonstrate your competencies rather than explaining all of the technical detail behind the project.
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Keep it clear and simple – Use your case studies to demonstrate the competencies and spell it out! Use the wording from the Resource Centre Guidance to clearly state how you have achieved that competency, and then reflect on what you have learned from it.
- Learn from it – The APC is designed to encourage self-reflection on professional experiences. Take the opportunity to understand how you can progress and improve in your career, and use the PDP to set real, tangible goals, rather than just an exercise to get the certification.