Heidelberg Materials Backs New Era of Highways Apprenticeships
The highways sector has long wrestled with a familiar challenge: finding enough well‑trained people to keep pace with the expanding and increasingly complex demands placed on the UK road network. While infrastructure investment continues to climb, the talent pipeline has struggled to follow suit, prompting industry leaders to rethink how the next generation of road workers is trained. A new partnership in East London is now offering a practical blueprint for progress.
Heidelberg Materials UK has joined forces with Kenson Highways and New City College to strengthen the foundations of highways training. Their collaboration has delivered a purpose‑built training facility at New City College’s Construction and Engineering Campus in Rainham, designed to give learners the skills required to build, repair and maintain real‑world infrastructure.
The initiative places hands‑on learning at the heart of its approach. Kenson Highways has directly invested in the facility, helping to establish one of the country’s first employer‑led training environments tailored specifically to highways maintenance. Heidelberg Materials has supported the programme by donating more than 200 tonnes of asphalt from its Dagenham plant, enabling the construction of a realistic working roadway within the college grounds.
The ROAD Programme
Central to this initiative is the Recruitment and Onboarding for Apprentices in Development (ROAD) programme. Developed by industry for industry, it offers a structured pathway into employment for people considering careers in highways maintenance.
The course runs over six weeks and combines classroom lessons with practical fieldwork carried out on the newly built training road. Learners gain a broader understanding of how carriageways, footways, utilities and streetlighting are constructed and maintained. They also acquire essential operational skills, such as excavation and reinstatement, that allow them to move seamlessly into entry‑level roles.
For many participants, the ROAD programme offers more than technical training. It acts as a bridge into employment, eliminating some of the uncertainty that often surrounds early career routes. On completing the course, every learner is guaranteed an interview with a local employer, ensuring direct access to recruitment opportunities.
Paul O’Neill, asphalt regional director at Heidelberg Materials UK, welcomed the initiative: “This is a fantastic initiative that opens up a clear pathway into employment in the highways sector for a range of candidates, including those facing barriers to work.” He continued: “It will help build the reliable pipeline of skilled workers our industry so desperately needs and supports our aim of encouraging more young people to consider a career in the construction industry as well as our commitment to delivering social value.”
Industry Investment In Education
The partnership demonstrates how employers can play an active role in shaping future talent. Kenson Highways, established in 1977 and operating across London and the home counties, has built a solid reputation for quality, safety and technical capability. The company’s services span resurfacing, drainage, highways term maintenance, civil engineering and traffic management.
Kenson also places strong emphasis on professional development, offering apprenticeships, graduate pathways and ongoing training to help staff progress through nationally recognised qualifications. By investing directly in college infrastructure, the company is reinforcing its commitment to long‑term workforce development.
Jonathan Yabsley, Director at Kenson Highways, highlighted the programme’s potential: “We’re proud to be investing directly in college training facilities for the highways sector. This employer-led collaboration will help shape the next generation of skilled operatives, creating genuine employment pathways and raising standards across our industry.”
This style of collaboration is increasingly recognised as vital to closing the construction skills gap. According to the Construction Industry Training Board (CITB), the UK will need an additional 225,000 construction workers by 2027, with highways maintenance identified as one area facing acute shortages. Employer-backed initiatives like this one provide a powerful mechanism for aligning education with real‑world demand.
New City College’s Expanding Role
New City College (NCC), one of the country’s largest further education groups, plays a central role in coordinating and delivering the training. With campuses across East London and Essex and an Ofsted Outstanding rating awarded in May 2025, NCC is well‑placed to support learners moving into technical careers.
The college has a long history of working with employers to design training that responds to evolving industry needs. Its Rainham campus already specialises in construction and engineering disciplines, offering courses in areas such as scaffolding, bricklaying, HVAC, welding and utilities.
Colleen Marshall, Principal at New City College Rainham, emphasised the significance of the partnership: “This partnership is a powerful example of how education and industry can work together to solve real workforce challenges. Kenson Highways’ investment represents more than new equipment, it’s a shared commitment to creating opportunities, supporting local people into sustainable jobs, and ensuring London has the skilled workforce it needs.”
By installing realistic training environments, the college ensures that learners gain not only theoretical understanding but also practical confidence. The addition of a functioning training road allows courses such as the City & Guilds Street Works Operative qualification to be delivered in a more authentic and engaging setting.
Heidelberg Materials And The Future Of Sustainable Construction
The involvement of Heidelberg Materials reflects its broader commitment to skills development, sustainability and innovation across the construction sector. With operations in more than 50 countries and approximately 51,000 employees, the company is one of the world’s largest integrated manufacturers of building materials.
In the UK, Heidelberg Materials operates more than 300 sites and employs over 4,000 people across aggregates, asphalt and contracting, concrete, cement and recycling. It is also spearheading major decarbonisation efforts, most notably through the construction of the world’s first industrial‑scale carbon capture facility for cement production at its Padeswood plant in north Wales. When complete, the facility will allow production of evoZero cement, using near‑zero carbon technology.
Its donation of asphalt to the new training centre is a small but symbolic part of this bigger picture. The company sees skills development, social value and sustainable materials as interconnected pillars of the industry’s future.
Strengthening The Sector Through Collaboration
Partnerships between education providers and employers have become increasingly important as the sector faces rising expectations around safety, capability and resilience. By aligning qualification pathways with the needs of roads and civil engineering employers, the ROAD programme addresses several long‑standing challenges.
These include:
- A shortage of skilled highways operatives
- Limited access to hands‑on training facilities
- Barriers facing candidates new to the industry
- Growing expectations for sustainable, well‑maintained infrastructure
The emphasis on practical learning also supports safer working practices. Apprentices gain early exposure to correct excavation methods, reinstatement standards, utilities coordination, manual handling and plant safety, helping reduce risk on future sites.
Such employer-led models are also being discussed across other parts of the construction sector. Research by the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) suggests that stronger integration between vocational training and industry could raise competency levels and support faster delivery of national infrastructure ambitions, including road upgrades, bridge renewals and decarbonised construction programmes.
A Skilled, Stable and Safety‑conscious Workforce
The new training facility and the ROAD programme represent a shift in how highways skills are developed in the UK. Rather than relying solely on traditional classroom teaching or limited work placements, the initiative embeds learners within a realistic, professionally guided environment that mirrors modern roadworks.
As the UK accelerates its investment in road maintenance, digital construction technologies and low‑carbon materials, demand for well‑trained operatives will only grow. Programmes like this could help shape a more resilient workforce capable of supporting the sector’s long‑term transformation.
For learners, the benefits are immediate: structured training, industry-recognised qualifications and direct links to employers. For industry, the programme helps build a skilled, stable and safety‑conscious workforce. For the wider economy, it strengthens local employment and reinforces essential public infrastructure.
