BEAR Scotland has launched a year-long Road Building and Maintenance Modern Apprenticeship with training provider Sibbald Training.
The programme has been designed around the skills required by BEAR’s road maintenance workforce, following a reduction in the number of appropriately skilled candidates and the withdrawal of relevant training from local colleges in South East Scotland.
Training and workplace assessment
Participants will attend six week-long training blocks at Sibbald Training’s centre at Sibbald Park in Blackridge, West Lothian. The course will cover flexible pavement works, road materials, setting out, kerbing, drainage and the installation of street ironwork.
It also includes a five-day street works training and assessment programme intended to provide industry-recognised training relevant to BEAR’s operations.
Between the training blocks, candidates will continue developing their skills in their normal workplaces. Sibbald Training assessors will make up to four workplace visits during the year to assess activities carried out in real working conditions and gather evidence towards candidates’ SVQ qualification.
The first cohort comprises eight BEAR employees from four South East Scotland depots. Four are new to the sector, while the remaining four are existing employees seeking to further develop their skills and competence.
Building a route into the sector
Jamie Finlayson, BEAR Scotland’s South East contract director, said: “To ensure that we keep key roads and bridges in as safe and reliable a condition as possible for the people of Scotland, we need a skilled and dedicated workforce.”
John Sibbald, managing director of Sibbald Training, said the programme had been developed with BEAR rather than using an off-the-shelf model.
“The combination of the Modern Apprenticeship, dedicated practical training at Sibbald Park and assessment within the candidates’ own workplaces gives them the opportunity to develop their knowledge and skills and then put these into practice in a real working environment,” he said.
Sibbald said the first cohort could form the beginning of a training pathway for developing skilled roadworkers.