National road worker training programme launched in East Ayrshire

The launch of a national road worker training programme took place yesterday at East Ayrshire Council, marking a whole new approach to the training process and helping councils to reduce costs.

The Scottish Roads Training Programme aims to benefit roads authorities across Scotland by re-engineering how road operatives are qualified and how training programmes are procured.

At least 15 of Scotland's 33 roads authorities (including Transport Scotland) are expected to sign up to the programme.

The system will use intelligent management systems to simplify and improve the delivery of local training and also develop relevant Scottish qualifications.

Councils will be able to use the programme as a single booking system for all training providers whether through an external procurement route or in-house.

This means that roads authorities can collaborate on joint external procurement or share resources for in-house training to maximise efficiency.

The system is also designed to provide a register of road workers' existing and future training needs.

Kevin Braidwood, Acting Head of Ayrshire Roads Alliance, said: “We were delighted to host the launch event and to be able to provide the project with senior officer support as it gets off the ground. The Council's training database is also being used as a template that will be expanded for the national programme, so we’re excited to see how the programme progresses.”

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