Improving Highway Safety

QinetiQ has developed for the Highways Agency (HA) a series of modular, hands on training courses for new Highways Agency Traffic Officers. The training, following a continual development process, was split into four main sections.

The foundation training segment intends to provide new recruits with a good understanding of motorway incident management, how to use the tools to carry out the job and the procedures that they have to be followed. This is an eleven day course that uses a combination of classroom exercises and hand on training. The course follows the requirements set by the Agency and trainees are assessed at various stages through the course by the means of practical testes and examination papers.

The enhancement training section aims to keep officers up-to-date with new developments in the world of traffic management. QinetiQ is involved in this process and ensure that any changes that have an operational impact are conveyed to the operators by the means of additional training on the new aspects either prior to implementation or as they are being implemented.

Once an operator has been in position for an agreed length of time and had sufficient experience of using the systems and managing incidents, QinetiQ provides advanced training on the more complex areas of the systems and explains alternative ways in which operations can be carried out.

For the technical training segment, QinetiQ provides a number of courses appertaining to Site Data, including: The Highways Agency Traffic Management System (HATMS), MCH 1596 Site Data Process and Basic Traffic Engineering, MSS Data Entry Package, MSS Rules and MIDAS Data Entry Package.

QinetiQ also provides refresher training on all aspects covered by the foundation course to ensure that the appropriate levels of knowledge are maintained.

Tutoring commenced in the South East region in September 2006, before spreading to other regions as they reached their go-live dates. As of February 2007, all HA Traffic Officers have received tutoring and are operating on live carriageways without supervision