Following this very successful inaugural session, Tripod Crest managing director, Darren Stokes, talks about the enthusiasm from all parties and discusses the potential for a bespoke new scheme.

“First of all, it was fantastic to see representatives from Tarmac, Hanson, Aggregate Industries, Toppersfield, Jordan Road Surfacing, CECA, CITB and Southwest Highways – with Eurovia, Gibbs, IAT and Cemex sending their apologies and wanting to attend future meetings.

In summary, we have a plan, but there is a lot to do!

There is much common ground between those involved, which is fantastic, but now we need to agree timings, logistics, responsibilities, funding and so on.

Of course there are schemes already in existence, but what we want is something that is as relevant as possible so really it needs to be totally bespoke to our specific sector. With approximately 5,000 road surfacing operatives already in the industry, our motivation to get a scheme sorted is very clear. Recruitment can be hard, with a shortage of skills, and competencies can vary considerably.

In terms of content, areas getting universal approval as mandatory include: health & safety, communication, technical knowledge, maintenance, industry compliance, Sector 16, site awareness, compliance, supervision and structure.

The plan is to give real depth to the courses involved, so with regard to health & safety, for example, modules will cover such areas as first aid, risk assessment, RIDDOR, COSHH, PPE, hazard awareness, accident investigation and legal compliance and handling fire extinguishers – including the obligations of both employers and employees.

In terms of some of the detail around materials, the better operatives know the characteristics of the materials they are handling, the better they will comprehend how to work with them to best effect. In some ways this sound very elementary, but it was felt spending time covering the basics properly would help to build operatives’ educations on very sound foundations and produce a quality road.

With regard to communication, all parties felt it important to formally take employees through what is expected of them, what they can expect from their employers, what their role involves in the context of the business, an overview of the industry, training paths available to those looking for career development, and what tools and support is available.

Apart from content, we need to agree the format: the balance between onsite/offsite modules and distance learning versus classroom sessions. Do we have nominated trainers within each business? How long should the whole programme last?

We are using National Occupational Standards as our benchmark, because we want the scheme to be recognised externally at the earliest opportunity.

The overall primary objective, however, is to create a training scheme that has industry wide appreciation and recognition with as many interested parties as possible working collaboratively. The outcome being a programme that produces highly skilled, motivated operatives that take pride in their jobs and in turn help to raise standards across the road surfacing industry. By involving as many people as we can, the training will not only benefit from as broad an input as possible, but will also have the best chance of becoming a truly fundamental, integrated contributor to the category.

By the end of 2016, we hope to have a pilot scheme up and running with a view to being able to roll out the programme from 2017.

I am excited about the response so far and am really optimistic about what we can potentially achieve together. A massive thank you to everyone who is giving their time to get this up and running and has supported the initiative.”

The next meeting will be held on Tuesday, January, 26th at Hanson in Northampton. Anyone not registered who would like to take part should email [email protected].

Comment from Hanson:

Andy Harrison from Hanson is just one of the industry figures who has got right behind the initiative. “We need a new way to train our operatives that will motivate them and engender pride across the industry in what can be achieved.

“We are anticipating around 20 vacancies in our business alone coming up this year and we want to be able to offer a sound training and development plan which can be adopted to suit the individual. For both those with serious ambitions and those who want to stay at operative or supervisor level.

“I am totally supportive of what Darren and his team have initiated – and am looking forward to seeing what we can all achieve together.”