In a commercial setting in MP aircraft, you have yearly Licence Proficiency Checks to revalidate your type rating (LPC) with a TRE. Mid-way between these you have an Operator Proficiency Check (OPC) with a training captain.
Once you have the 500 hours multi-crew, your next LPC can be your ATPL skill test, which is very similar to your LPC, but there are some mandatory items you might not necessarily cover in every LPC.
That is probably where the "being given an ATPL" comes from - there is an ATP checkride, but it is not such a huge extra event that it stands our in the same way a CPL or IR skill test does.
