The Local Council Roads Innovation Group (LCRIG) has signed a Professional Development Partnership (PDP) with the Institute of Highway Engineers (IHE).
The agreement effectively formalises collaboration across several areas including promotion of each other’s organisations and access to training, resources, etc.
LCRIG are currently developing a training platform that will focus on providing high quality training in a cost-effective manner to save the scarce resources available to local government. The platform will address challenges highlighted by council members, providing local authorities with co-ordinated access to sector relevant, affordable training, ensuring that the right training is delivered at the right time and assist in filing the current skills gap at all levels.
The agreement between both parties was signed in July and will run until December 2023.
LCRIG Chief Executive Martin Duffy said: “We have always enjoyed a close working relationship with the IHE and this agreement will act as an official extension of that. Both organisations continue to drive innovation and collaboration forward and this PDP means that we can now more formally tap into each other’s resources, events, and wider industry initiatives.
“Our recent Innovation Festival shows that there is a real appetite amongst local authorities and the supply chain to take forward new ideas, products and services. The more we can partner with organisations such as the IHE the easier it is to achieve this. We need to deliver best practice across a number of areas, including skills, so it is important that both parties work together to make the case for local roads.”
IHE Chief Executive Steve Spender said: “The IHE Professional Development Partnership initiative was introduced by the Institute a couple of years ago and is intended to promote closer cooperation between the Institute of Highway Engineers and potential partners and other organisations working in the highways sector. Our aim is to work together to provide industry standard training, promote the IHE Highway Engineering Academy (HEA) and to support all the practitioners working in the highways sector through the provision of suitable training, guidance, and advice, and to assist them where appropriate in seeking membership of a professional body as well as guiding individuals through towards professional registration.
“We look forward to working closely with the Local Council Roads Innovation Group on a number of initiatives that will help deliver positive change across the sector.”
(Picture – LCRIG)
