A free, online asset management training toolkit has been launched by the Highways Maintenance Efficiency Programme (HMEP), providing highways teams with a consistent source of long-term planning skills.
As first revealed by Transport Network, the completion of the course generates a continuing professional development (CPD) certificate from the Chartered Institution of Highways and Transportation and is suitable training for engineers, designers and policy makers alike.
The Department for Transport has also made it a requirement of the self-assessment process, which dictates how much cash English local authorities win from a £578m of incentive fund over this parliament.
Developed by Atkins, the five-module training package covers:
- Introduction to asset management
- Policy, strategy and performance
- Asset data
- Lifecycle planning and works programming
- Leadership and going further
Leading architect of the toolkit and HMEP advocate, Matthew Lugg OBE, said: ‘Many local highways authorities have embraced asset management as a key enabler to make best use of their overall resources and deliver the right outcomes, but the awareness of this approach is often limited to a few people within an organisation.
‘The HMEP asset management e-learning toolkit has been specifically designed to embed an asset management culture across the whole organisation involved in delivering the highways maintenance service. In doing so, this helps to ensure everyone fully understands and supports the benefits of this approach.’
HMEP, the sector led body which promotes best practice in local highways management, claimed that if adopted by all 152 local highway authorities in England it could generate savings of around £100m over the remainder of the parliament.
This is based on 5% cost saving estimates described in Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA) Code for Transport Infrastructure Assets, HMEP said in a statement.
It also highlights that the toolkit has been adopted by the UK Roads Liaison Group and is aligned to the ISO 55000 Asset Management Standard.
Geoff Allister from the Highways Term Maintenance Association, said the toolkit would provide authorities with a free, easy to use training that could lead to ‘long lasting financial and customer benefits.
