The majority of students engaging in development planning studies do so with the intent of becoming qualified to assist in the preliminary stages of civil engineering or construction projects. This term might also refer to personal or business development courses.

The United States of America commonly called the United States, is a federal republic consisting of fifty states and a federal district. The 48 contiguous states and the federal district of Washington, D.C. are in first North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in northwestern North America, west of Canada and east of Russia across the Bering Strait, and the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-North Pacific. The country also has five populated and nine unpopulated territories in the Pacific and the Caribbean.

A course is the study of a particular topic within a wider subject area and is the foundation of a qualification. A typical course includes lectures, assessments and tutorials.