NRSWA Training is vital for those involved in Street works

NRSWA training is becoming more and more essential for all of those completing or supervising jobs such as excavating roads or paths, redirecting traffic for construction work, locating underground obstacles and re-laying roads and pathways including modular paths, concrete slabs and hot and cold lay bitumen.

Whether you are an operative or a supervisor, NRSWA training is an excellent way of becoming suitably qualified for your role. A modular scheme, accredited by City and Guilds, NRSWA training is broken down in to individual units. The units can be chosen on the basis of the most relevant for the job ahead of you, or with a view to achieving an NRSWA qualification.

To achieve a NRSWA qualification you must gain the correct type and number of units. There are 6 qualifications for operatives and 6 for supervisors available.

The objective of the operatives’ qualifications is to train the candidate to be aware of health and safety when carrying out specific jobs on the roads and highways of the UK. There are six qualifications available for operatives and they are coded from O1- O6.

The aim of the supervisors’ qualifications is to verify that candidates leading teams of operatives are aware of health and safety issues that confront themselves, their team, pedestrians and vehicle users whilst working on UK roads and highways. There are also six qualifications available for supervisors and these are coded S1 - S6.

The key to understanding NRSWA training and to choosing the most effective route through the units is to identify which qualifications you wish to achieve. For example, if you are a supervisor looking to hold the Monitor Excavation, Backfilling and Reinstatement - Construction Layers qualification (S2) then you will need to make sure that any NRSWA training you undertake contains the following units : Location and Avoidance of Underground Apparatus (001), Monitoring Signing, Lighting and Guarding (010), Monitoring Excavation in the Road/Highway (011), Monitoring Reinstatement and Compaction of Backfill Materials (012), Motoring Reinstatement of Sub-base and Road-base in Non-bituminous Materials (013) and Monitoring Reinstatement of Bituminous Materials (014).

However, if you are looking to complete the operative’s qualification for Reinstatement of Concrete Slabs (04) then you would need to complete the following units Location and Avoidance of Underground Apparatus (001), Signing, Lighting and Guarding (002) and Reinstatement of Concrete Slabs (008).

As the canny among you will have realised, most of the supervisor units begin with a 0, while the operator units begin with a 00. The only exception to this rule is the Unit 001 - Location and Avoidance of Underground Apparatus, which is valid for both supervisors and operatives.

Remember, if it is a NRSWA card that you are looking for, you must hold at least one NRSWA qualification. Cards are not awarded for completion of units but on completion of sets of units which make up either the O (1-6) or S (1- 6) qualifications.

It is also very useful to be aware that since May 2010 the NRSWA training scheme has changed, meaning that operatives who have completed unit Signing, Lighting and Guarding (002) and supervisors who have completed unit Monitor Signing, Lighting Guarding (010) are now eligible to gain an ID card as these units count as a stand alone qualification (O6 and S6 respectively).