Road Surfacing Operative

On a road surfacing operative apprenticeship course, you’ll be responsible for the surfacing, resurfacing and improvement of vast stretches of the highway network, including all sorts of roads, from highways to residential streets.

Operatives work in various environments and spend the majority of their time outside. The job involves the removal of existing surfaces using a mechanical breakup process, the visual inspection and preparation of the underlying surface to receive new surfacing material, the resurfacing of the prepared area using a range of road surfacing machinery often covering vast areas.

What you’ll learn

On a road surfacing operative apprenticeship course, you’ll learn to:

• Lay and compress road surfaces following industry standards and best practices, using all kinds of asphalt and accompanying products such as bond coat and bituminous jointing chemicals.
• Prepare and operate powered equipment and tools such as disc cutters, breakers, floor saws, and compactor plates.
• Identify, locate, and excavate around underground utilities to avoid strikes and outages.
• Use correct health, safety, environmental, and ecological practices while working on the road, including resource transportation, storage, lifting, and handling.
• Work safely inside temporary traffic management zones as required by law and industry standards to protect all parties while construction is underway.
• Work well in a team environment, coordinating and helping team members as required.
• Make good use of your own time to complete work on time and according to agreed-upon schedules.

Entry requirements

You’ll usually need:

• Depending on the employer, but likely GCSEs or equivalent or relevant experience.
• Apprentices without level 2 English and maths will need to achieve this level before taking the end-point assessment.
• be over 18 years of age
• have a full driving licence

Assessment methods

The End Point Assessment consists of two distinct assessment methods: 

• Workplace observation
• Professional discussion 

Duration, level, subjects and potential salary upon completion

Apprenticeship standard

More information about the Level 2 Road Surfacing Operative Apprenticeship standard can be found here.

Apprenticeship end point assessment

For more information about the End Point Assessment Process, please read the Institute of Apprenticeships’ information page.