Road managers at Aberdeen City Council have participated in the launch of a new roads training scheme for Scotland.

The Scottish Roads Training Programme is designed to benefit roads authorities across the country by co-ordinating road worker training with the ambition of re-engineering how road operatives are qualified and how training programmes are procured.

The system will use intelligent management systems to simplify and improve the efficiency of 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, and this means roads authorities can collaborate on joint external procurement or share resources for in-house training to maximise efficiency.

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Aberdeen City Council transport spokesperson Councillor Sandra Macdonald said: "The new national scheme will ensure our roads staff will have relevant and up-to-date qualifications for their skills and expertise, and will also help us in providing training for our hard-working staff.

"This new initiative for doing joint procurement with other roads authorities will help to reduce costs for this essential training and ensure a new national standard."

Aberdeen is one of about 20 roads authorities in Scotland that has indicated they are signing up to the scheme.

The Scottish Roads Training Programme will also include a dedicated national resource, training co-ordinated through a booking system, measurable efficiencies by reducing training costs, improved certainty of future training budget requirements, improved forward planning of training needs, consistent core training for road workers, and a training card for road workers.

(MH/JG)